Exclusive: American service member details coronavirus quarantine aboard Italian cruise ship
Retired Lt. Col. Shawn Dawley is one of more than 200 Americans stranded on the Costa Luminosa cruise ship which was barred from disembarking after three passengers tested positive for COVID-19.
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The Italian Costa Luminosa cruise ship stranded at sea with over 200 U.S. citizens onboard due to the coronavirus has also recorded dozens of "sick" crewmembers and passengers, according to ship logs obtained by the Miami Herald on Wednesday.
At least 24 crew members are sick and are isolated, while 50 passengers are classified as sick, or are roommates of passengers who are classified as sick, the paper reported.
The "sick" designation doesn't mean they have COVID-19, but the vessel has been at sea shortly after some disembarked passengers tested positive for the virus. It's nearing France and hopes to dock there on Thursday.
Leikanger, Norway - August 8, 2012: Costa Luminosa cruise ship sailing through the Sognefjord near the town of Leikanger in Norway. (iStock)
“Our priority is to bring our guests safely home and our teams are focused on this goal in a situation which is evolving very rapidly," an emailed statement by Costa Cruises to the Miami Herald read. “At the moment the health situation on board is under control, with no need for medical disembarkations."
The logs reportedly showed that 33 passengers from 11 different countries were sick, including one person from the U.S. Seventeen additional people were as roommates of those who are sick.
The ship has 1,427 passengers on board and has the capacity to hold 1,050 crew members, the paper reported.
The Costa Luminosa first set out from Fort Lauderdale on March 5 where it was scheduled to go through the Caribbean and then on to Europe, with a final destination of Italy, according to the Washington Post.
During a previous voyage, a man was taken off the ship in the Cayman Islands on Feb. 29, Costa Cruises said in a statement, per the paper. He later tested positive for the coronavirus and has since died.
The first five crew members on the current voyage become sick were isolated on March 8, the same day two passengers were evacuated from the ship in Puerto Rico and later tested positive for coronavirus.
“The situation everyday is going more bad,” one crew member told the Miami Herald. “They never was ready with personal protection for avoid the virus.”
On Sunday, three passengers with respiratory problems were offloaded in Spain’s Canary Islands and transferred to local hospitals, the paper reported. COVID-19 test results are not yet available.
The 200 or so Americans on the vessel have been dealing with the in-cabin quarantine, one person onboard -- a retired Air Force pilot -- told Fox News earlier this week.
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"We are doing fine," Lt. Col. Shawn Dowley (Ret.) told "The Story" host Martha MacCallum. "It's a different story for different types of passengers."
Dowley told MacCallum those who may be concerned on the ship are the elderly and those with preexisting conditions as they are considered the most vulnerable to the novel coronavirus.
He added that the ship's crew has not yet tested all of the passengers. While they hope to dock in France, President Emmanuel Macron -- like most countries -- has enacted more stringent screening and port-of-entry requirements due to the rapidly spreading virus.
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"It's putting a bit of a wrinkle into the next 24 hours which is about how long it's going to take to get to that port," he said.