Tzaneeners locked down on cruise ship

What was meant to be a birthday celebration filled with making memories, turned into two Tzaneeners being locked-down on a cruise ship in a foreign country.

Sonia de Wit, well-known resident, embarked on a journey to celebrate her birthday with her friend, Anmari Engelbrecht.

The cruise ship, known as Costa Luminosa, has been docked in the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain as of Sunday. This comes after an unknown number of passengers contracted Coronavirus
(COVID-19) which allegedly has claimed the life of one of the passengers.

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“We’ve been on the Costa Luminosa since 22 February and had a wonderful time, but did not expect things to turn out the way it did,” said De Wit. “We are healthy and well looked after by the ship’s crew and management, even though we are in a confined space.”

According to a statement sent to Herald, the reason why the Costa Cruises passenger ship has been docked, is because two people with serious respiratory problems were on-board. These passengers have allegedly been transferred to hospitals in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Another passenger was evacuated and three more passengers have disembarked with their partners.

“We are not 100% sure about the facts and we can only draw conclusions and speculate. We can only report and give feedback on what we have experienced up until now,” De Wit told Herald. “We are concerned for the well-being of the people around us, especially the crew who has to continue performing their normal duties through it all. We understand that it is unforeseen circumstances for everybody and that it has had an emotional effect on all. We are worried about the the people who are really sick.”

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The cruise ship carried 1,427 tourists and 879 crew members, the statement said. “The ship left Brazil on its journey through the Caribbean. A 68-year-old Italian tourist boarded the ship in the
Cayman Islands.” It is believed that the man was infected and that he passed away on the ship.

According to a report in Miami Herald, two more passengers were tested positive for the Coronavirus when they docked in Puerto Rico.

“All the necessary sanitary control measures are adopted between the Foreign Health, the Maritime Authority, the Port Authority and the Consignee,” the statement read.

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De Wit told Herald that she and many others on the ship were willing to pay costs for being transported back to their countries of origin but they were told that alternative plans were being made.

“At the moment I cannot give much feedback. The uncertainty of not knowing what will happen next has put some strain on us all, especially those of us who must make the travel arrangements and try to work around the countries that have implemented travel bans.”

Update:

On Friday, March 20, the cruise ship had docked in Marseille and passengers were still awaiting alternative traveling plans to get to their home countries.

On Monday, March 23, the cruise ship was expected to travel to Tuscany, Italy were the passengers would be offloaded in an area with less strain on hospitals.