Covid Cruises Are Back In the News as Morocco Refuses Cruise Ship a Port Call Due to—Covid-19!
So, now this happened: the Port of Tangier has refused permission to enter to a cruise ship because of 'some (26) cases', or 'infections', or whatever I guess.
As the western world experiences an usually early and quite out-of-season reversal of its ‘incidence fortunes’, I thought it would be a good point in time to provide you with a six-month update on what I’ve dubbed ‘Covid Cruises’ back in early January 2022:
Earlier today, I saw a brief snippet that caught my eye: as the especially heinous form of mass tourism—cruises—picks up steam again (pun intended), I saw the following news item reported by German legacy media (my emphases):
Covid caused a deep tourism hole in Morocco, the country is still handling the pandemic with caution. This now also had consequences for a German cruise ship.
Because of some Covid infections among the passengers, Moroccan authorities have disallowed a German cruise ship from stopping in the port of Tangier. As the news website Le360 reported on Wednesday, the Mein Schiff Herz of the shipping company TUI Cruises was scheduled to call at Tangier in northern Morocco on Tuesday, coming from Lisbon. However, the port authority had forbidden the mostly German tourists on board to go ashore.
So, how many ‘cases’ are we talking about and how would they have been detected?
I thus ventured over to Le360 and found this:
Here’s the translated piece by Said Kadry (my emphases):
Moroccan authorities decided last night [6 June] to prevent the cruise ship Mein Schiff Herz from docking at the port of Tangier Medina, due to the detection of Covid-19 positive cases among its passengers. It was due to arrive on Tuesday at 7 a.m.
The cruise ship with 1,785 tourists and its 640-strong crew, in arrival from Lisbon, Portugal, was refused entry to the port of Tangier-City due to the detection of positive cases of Covid-19 among 26 passengers, in accordance with the provisions of the Law of the Sea, Le360 learns from informed sources.
According to the same sources, who requested anonymity, this decision was taken after the ship had reached an approx. distance of two miles outside Moroccan territorial waters, based on a report received by the Moroccan Health Authorities of an increase in cases of Covid-19 infections among the passengers.
Notice the sleight of hand here? While we learn the number of ‘cases’ (26), there’s no information about the details that would matter: what kind of ‘test’? Who did the testing? Would Moroccans just take the word of a passenger whose (perhaps private) rapid test was ‘positive?
26 ‘cases’, which legacy media and Moroccan authorities conflate with ‘infections’, which doesn’t mean any of these ‘positives’ would actually have been ‘confirmed’ (and, by the way, by whom anyways?).
Beyond Ridiculous, Bordering on the Insane
I don’t like cruise ships, but the best characterisation I’ve ever heard is from my wife who once quipped they look and resemble really existing socialist dreams of all being equal in a highly regulated pseudo-cornucopia with limited choices and few, if any, exit options that require permission by crew members.
Oh, by the way, speaking about options here and there: the company in question (TUI) offers a host of ‘carefree Covid services’, already included in the ticket price, which incl.:
No cancellation fees (limited to amounts up to 1,500 € per person) if a passenger comes down with a ‘suspected infection’ and conditional on no other service provider (e.g., travel insurance) covering these fees.
TUI would further cover possible costs deriving from imposed quarantine obligations (up to 14 days), incl. a return ticket for you and your family (limited to 5,000 € per booking).
In addition, there’s 24/7 German-language doctors (remotely) accessible, even though TUI ‘continues to recommend that you take out travel cancellation and travel health insurance’.
I suppose that this is what making an omelette without breaking any eggs might look like: encourage mass tourism, add many ‘safety’ features, and get confined to your quarters because…if you venture deeper into the rabbit hole masquerading as the TUI website, you can learn that…
Some countries may require a negative test result at the border from travellers as young as two years (e.g., Portugal or Italy).
TUI also offers testing options in cooperation with a bunch of labs in Germany, to be undertaken prior to departure.
Talk about reaping what one sows, eh?
Happy holidays, I suppose.
So not only did corona hit vaccinated and boosted tourists, but it hit them after their stop in the very highly vaccinated (but not doing so very well corona-wise) Portugal.
Just add some background music and an soothing marketing voice, and you have a wonderful commercial for the vaccines.
This is interesting from a different angle: according to swedish state media and regime loyal media (we have virtually two owners besides teensy-tiny alternative media/samizat), it is impossible to stop a ship from apporaching the shore or a harbour in Europe.
Impossible as in againts all natural law.
Yet such a huge ship can apparently be stopped with a radio transmission. Then, why can't dinghys and barges and rubber boats be stopped outside Tunisia? Are africans and arabs in small vessels automatically Covid-free and a better class of human than paying customers on a cruise ship?
That kind of queston, if asked openly on the record, is equal to quitting your job and blacklisting yourself.