Port Rashid Dubai welcomes 13 unwanted cruise ships amid Coronavirus fears

   April 24, 2020 ,   Cruise Industry

Dubai's Port Rashid welcomed 13 foreign-flagged cruise liners (that were at sea) while most countries had closed borders due to the ongoing Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The UAE (of which Dubai is one of 7 emirates) officially confirmed 8000+ cases (including 52 deaths) of COVID-19. Local authorities suspended international travel and imposed a strict lockdown.

According to Port Rashid's executive director, 13 passenger ships (carrying ~29,000 passengers plus ~10,000 staff-crew) had been granted port entry. He added they had taken the necessary strict measures with those arriving boats carrying out medical tests. All cruisers and most of the staff-crew were flown home, 80% of whom were Europeans. None of them had tested Coronavirus-positive.

Port of Dubai (Port Rashid, UAE)

Empty cruise ships (with only essential crew onboard) are still docked in Dubai and could remain there until October when the UAE's tourist season might resume and the port return to normal operation. In 2019, Dubai welcomed ~16 million tourists. Before the pandemic, the emirate hoped to reach 20 million in 2020.

Note: Following this CruiseMapper tracker link you can see the liners currently docked in Dubai (zoom in). For Coronavirus updates on cruise ship quarantines (infected passengers and crew) and top-pandemic countries (COVID-19 cases and deaths, daily updated statistics) see at CruiseMapper's Norovirus page.