Coronavirus infections were concealed by a cruise line, allegedly fooling their passengers that everyone on-board was safe from the COVID-19 disease. According to a Daily Mail report, management of the Costa Luminosa cruise line allegedly hid COVID-19 infections on-board and blocked TV news channels to fool their passengers into believing that everything was alright on the ship.
The Costa Luminosa was isolated in the Mediterranean Sea after encountering a horrifying coronavirus outbreak on-board after setting sail from Fort Lauderdale on March 5. 2020. After two weeks, the 2,000 passengers of the cruise line were finally allowed to evacuate to the city of Marseille. However, 36 people were confirmed to be positive with COVID-19, while 7 passengers later died.
The guests who survived the COVID-19 outbreak on-board filed a lawsuit in federal court, claiming that the captain of the cruise line knew that an outbreak was sure to happen since two other ships--Diamon Princess and Grand Princess--also suffered a coronavirus outbreak on-board. Carnival, Costa's parent company, owns the two cruise lines.
The report stated that the cruise operator didn't offer refunds or cancellations to its passengers, and also failed to warn them about the outbreak adequately. They allegedly secretly dropped off infected individuals at the ports along their transatlantic route.
Passengers fooled by a Costa Luminosa cruise line by hiding coronavirus infections!
The report of Daily Mail said that global media outlets already knew about the coronavirus outbreak even before those on-board the Costa Luminosa did. It was confirmed that the crew members of the ship allegedly hid the crisis by blocking access to TV news channels.
The cruise line also misinformed its passengers saying that they were equipped with a medical facility that operates 24 hours a day even though it was only open for 5 hours. It was also reported after the $490 million ship was finally locked down, crew members used table napkins to protect themselves instead of facemasks.
"Costa's negligent misconduct was predicated on a profit motive because simply put, cruise lines like Costa make no money when passengers don't sail," said the lawsuit filed in Miami.
Paul Turner, a Wisconsin resident, filed the class-action lawsuit on behalf of the 2,000 affected passengers. The complaint filed could result in Costa paying out tens of million dollars for damages it caused to its passengers.
Turner revealed that Costa Luminosa was already carrying infected passengers before it even set sail on its 20-day transatlantic voyage.
A 68-year old passenger was dropped off in the Cayman Islands on the ship's route to Fort Lauderdale after symptoms of COVID-19 appeared. The passenger was tested positive of the virus and eventually died.
The cruise liner allegedly ignored what happened and boarded new passengers in Fort Lauderdale without any proper sanitation or disinfection procedures, and without consulting medical experts about the risks of infection.
