Regal Princess docks at Port Everglades after two crew test negative for coronavirus
The Regal Princess docked at Port Everglades Sunday evening around 10 after sailing back and forth off the coast all day waiting for coronavirus test results to come back for two crew members.
The ship was supposed to dock in Port Everglades Sunday morning but instead spent the day at sea after the U.S. Coast Guard delivered and retrieved test kits from the ship via small boat. At 6:30 p.m. Sunday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the tests came back negative and rescinded its “no-sail order,” clearing the ship to dock.
The tested Regal Princess crew members transferred to the Florida-based ship from the Grand Princess cruise ship in California, which has 21 positive cases — 19 of them crew members — of the virus that causes COVID-19. The Regal crew members are not showing symptoms of the virus, the company said. Princess Cruises is owned by Miami-based Carnival Corporation.
The CDC had issued a “no-sail order” for the Regal Princess over the weekend while the two crew members were tested.
On Sunday evening, the State Department and CDC issued warnings against cruise ship travel for all Americans.
The Regal Princess, which can hold more than 3,500 passengers and 1,300 crew, was on a 14-day Caribbean cruise out of Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale. The following Regal cruise scheduled to leave Port Everglades on Sunday for a seven-day tour of the Caribbean was canceled.
At around 5:30 a.m. Sunday, Regal Princess passengers and crew awoke to an announcement from the captain that the ship was waiting for federal health authorities to test two crew members. A letter distributed to passengers Sunday says the crew members transferred from the Grand Princess 14 days ago.
The testing and travel warning came one day after Vice President Mike Pence met with cruise company CEOs, including Arnold Donald of Carnival Corporation, at Port Everglades Saturday to discuss the industry’s response to the spread of the novel coronavirus on cruise ships. The Grand Princess in California, expected to dock in Oakland Monday, is the second cruise ship to house a coronavirus outbreak. The Diamond Princess ship saw nearly 700 people contract the virus on board while quarantined in Japan in February.
Pence said only elderly people with serious health conditions should reconsider cruising.
Adam Goldstein, head of the cruise industry lobbying group Cruise Lines International Association, vowed to improve passenger screening and quarantine procedures going forward.
“Given the significance of travel and tourism, it is critical that Americans keep traveling,” he said. Carnival Corp. said Saturday some of its ships had already started temperature checks for boarding passengers and crew, but that it would take a little more time to round up enough thermometers for every ship.
Three people in Broward County have tested positive for the virus. One worked at Port Everglades for a company contracted by cruise companies to greet passengers and help them on and off ships. Kennedy, a spokesperson for Port Everglades, told the Miami Herald she did not know what day the worker had last come to the port, but said the port is safe for business.
Shamarial Roberson, Florida’s deputy secretary of health, did not respond to requests for information about how many people the port worker might have come into contact with.
The world’s three largest cruise companies, Carnival Corp., Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, Ltd., did not respond to requests for comment about whether they contract with the company.
This story was originally published March 8, 2020 at 10:26 AM.
