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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCruise Industry pressured Caribbean Islands to allow potential Corona tourists onto their shores
I am glad these Islands are putting their foot down and protecting their people...
Across the Caribbean, cruise lines have placed enormous pressure on governments to be allowed to continue to dock cruise ships, even when concerns about illness on board arise.
In Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, and Turks and Caicos, Carnival Cruise Line, the namesake brand of Carnival Corporation, which controls about half the market share, threatened to pull its business after government officials attempted to stop ships carrying potentially sick passengers from docking in their ports or restricted which passengers could disembark. The three island governments were left to make critical public health decisions under threat from a corporation that holds enormous sway over island economies.
One of the ships turned out to be carrying the virus. On Friday, authorities in the Cayman Islands and Puerto Rico announced that their first confirmed coronavirus patients had entered on the Costa Luminosa, a Carnival Corporation ship.
Only after news broke that the Cayman Islands would be forced to shut down one of its three hospitals because of worker exposure to a Costa Luminosa patient did the Cruise Lines International Association announce that its members would suspend operations in the U.S., cancelling many Caribbean cruises.
https://theintercept.com/2020/03/14/coronavirus-cruise-ships-caribbean/
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