The first cruise ship of the year arrived at the port of Kavala in northern Greece spreading optimism about tourism arrivals in 2022. However, coronavirus infections have been detected on board and according to preliminary information only crew members are ill.
Cruise ship MS EUROPA of the German Hapag-Lloyd arrived early Monday morning at the port of Kavala. On board 136 passengers from Germany. The ship had departed from Istanbul, Turkey, and its destination is the port of Thessaloniki, also in northern Greece.
According to local media kavalanews, however, there is a coronavirus outbreak.
Six crew members have been infected with the virus, another local media, kavalapost, reported.
The mobilization of port and health authorities was prompt for the implementation of health protocols in order to prevent the spread of the virus.
However, Tuesday afternoon, Skai TV reported that the number of infection cases has increased to 23 and all are crew members. Citing sources from the Shipping Ministry Skai reported that there was fear the infections would rise further.
Passengers can leave the cruise ship only with negative Covid-test, the local media noted.
So far, there is no official announcement on the issue.
It looks as if the negative-tested passengers of M/S Europa did disembark and had sight-seeing tours in the area, as local authorities stated.
This new strain is OMICRON which has more or less eradicated the DELTA virus — this new strain is like a FLU virus and lasts about 3 days and is not deadly. The sooner people wake up to this, the better !!!