Several crew members onboard the cruise ship Pullmantur Horizon have told Crew Center they are stressed and afraid about their colleagues suffering from the COVID-19 virus. The crew reported that the virus is spreading rapidly and according to the latest message we received on April 4, some 150 people out of 250 onboard have tested positive. The first crew member who tested positive for COVID-19 was on March 26, when an ambulance took 4 crew with flu-like symptoms to the local hospital, later the captain announced that one of them tested positive for the virus. Four days later, on March 30, the crew reported that 11 out of 20 crew members tested for COVID-19 were positive. The cruise ship Pullmantur Horizon docked at Port Rashid in Dubai on March 15. Since then the ship is under lockdown and the crew is isolated. One crew member who has sent us an audio recording from the ship’s PA announcement says that the crew is divided in two separate areas. The crew reports that they are well treated onboard, however, the situation is desperate and they all want to disembark the ship as soon as possible.
Here are some of the reports we received from the Pullmantur Horizon crew members:
On March 28 we receive the following report from a crew member wishing to remain anonymous “I just wanted to share this message because many of the crew are getting stressed (already 15 days on cabin confinement) but it's just today that they announce a positive case. We are around 250 crew and contractors on board of the Pullmantur Horizon in the port of Dubai, and since 2 weeks we had an outbreak of influenza, which reached 40 crew members till now.
We have been moved to passengers' cabins individually and isolated. Not permitted to go out of the cabins only for the ones working.
Two days ago an ambulance took 4 crew members ashore to the local hospital. Today the Captain informed us that only one of them was tested positive for the COVID-19 and waiting for the rest of the tests, and we will be updated on the current situation in the future.
To be honest, we are well treated, bottles of water and food is being delivered to our cabins every day and the price of the internet has been improved. We will keep being isolated inside our cabins, despite the stress and the lack of information, hoping for a fast and efficient response from Pullmantur Cruises.
A very big special thanks to our crew on duty (cooks, mess guys, restaurant, kitchen stewards, restaurant team, and housekeeping.
On March 30 Pullmantur Horizon another crew member messaged “ We have 11 out of 20 tested crew members infected with the coronavirus. The same crew member sent us a message On April 4, saying “to my knowledge they do have more than 150 crew that tested positive to COVID-19. An announcement was made on PA for when the dinner will take place for the positive Crew it's in Crew mess Deck 3 and for the negative in the Buffet deck11.”
Another crew member sent us the following emotional letter on April 4, asking for the healthy crew to leave the ship while they can.
“To whom it may concern;
We are seeking your help to make an immediate action plan regarding the situation onboard Pullmantur Horizon.
Almost 60% of the crew members are infected by the COVID19. Now our enemy became two,
1) COVID-19 that can not be seen by our naked eye.
2) Crew Members which are infected with COVID-19 but we don't know who are they.
We are going to all be infected here if no immediate action will apply. All of us will suffer.
As we all know this COVID19 is very difficult to fight but as for negative crew members must be taken out of the ship as soon as possible and be quarantine and make a test again after quarantine.
Thank You. Pullmantur Horizon Crew”
After we posted this article, we received another message today from a crew member saying:
"I am a crew of Pullmantur Horizon I write this message for the public to know what is happening here in Horizon. Last April 2 they started testing all the crew for COVID-19, before that they were delivering food in our cabins "under quarantine" So April 4 they call us one by one to tell the results and we heard that almost half or more than half of the crew came positive.
This is our situation now, after knowing the results they came up with the decision regarding the food how we eat. I dont know if they are still thinking because they let us all out on our cabins positive crew eat in staff mess and officer's mess and those who are negative eat on lido buffet. And until now they dont have news for us positive crew if what they are going to do if they will send us to medical or what. I want the public to know in case of what happen to us here and I want this message to reach the management I hope they will hear us thank you."
