In order to make sure all of you cruise hospitalians start your voyages safe and sound, here are just a few steps to make sure you keep yourself, your guests and your colleagues safe and healthy when working on a cruise after Covid 19
As the COVID-19 crisis begins to develop across country to country, we are being increasingly reminded that this disease is here to stay for the foreseeable future. As a vaccine will not be widely available for at least 1 year, it will be likely that COVID-19 will be a risk that will need to be respected as such for quite some time. Scared yet? Don’t be! While the virus will most likely be with us for quite some time, the decreasing infection and death toll in some of the hardest hit countries suggests that the end of the most dramatic effects (such as quarantine) may be just over the horizon for some countries…
The change of lockdown order will mean that our focus will be turned from stopping the virus by any means necessary, to resuming economic activity in the safest manner possible. Which brings us to cruises. As we previously mentioned , the cruise industry has been one of the hardest hit by the global pandemic. This has been partly due to its perception of being one of the initial vectors of the virus.
While it is certainly true that certain cruise lines were hit hard by the initial infection, it should be stated that the industry is one of the most prepared for a pandemic of this calibre. However, as the old saying goes: one can never be too prepared! So in order to make sure all of you cruise hospitalians start your voyages safe and sound, here are just a few steps to make sure you keep yourself, your guests and your colleagues safe and healthy working on a cruise after Covid 19.
Now, before we can hope to prevent COVID 19, we have to be able to spot it! This is important as the virus is highly contagious, so those who are infected or potentially infected need to be separated from the other guests and crew before the situation can get out of control. While it is likely that any cruise line you work for will have their own practice for identifying said individuals- every member should be working together to remain vigilantly on the lookout for the telltale signs. As quoted by the Center for Disease Control:
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Fever
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Cough
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Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
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Chills
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Repeated shaking with chills
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Muscle pain
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Headache
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Sore throat
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New loss of taste or smell
If you or your colleagues notice these symptoms in anyone aboard the ship, don’t be afraid to mention it to your supervisor! Odds are they will appreciate your awareness and will enact the necessary precautions outlined by the ships prevention policy.
You may also have noticed that the latter 4 symptoms are impossible to actually spot- but you should still be aware of them! Now more than ever it is important to take constant inventory of ourselves and if any of the above symptoms present, you should speak to your manager and either organise a test or self isolate.
It is also important to note that while these symptoms should act as a “red flag” for all of you vigilant hospitalians, they are by no means fool-proof. In fact some studies have theorized that up to 78% of those who have caught COVID-19 may not have presented any noticeable symptoms at all! Which means it is important to…
Step 2. Maintain impeccable hygiene
This may seem obvious, but right now there is nothing more important than hygiene! Now it is important to mention that while many high profile cases of cruise pandemics have emerged, most cruise lines actually have very high standards of hygiene.
This is down to the fact that previous global pandemics (such as SARS and gastro-intestinal flu) have made the industry wary of how illness can spread and are under close scrutiny of governmental health bodies. The measures taken include : informing guests of handwashing and hygiene stations (we’ll get to that later!) mandatory washing stations at the entrance of buffets and extensive, regular disinfecting regiments.
While these measures are only going to become more extensive after the most recent pandemic, it is still important for us as individuals to maintain our own hygiene standards both on and off board. Here are a few guidelines set by the WHO:
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Wash your hands as frequently as possible (this is much preferable to wearing gloves)
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Practice respiratory etiquette (cough/sneeze into your elbow//tissue)
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Maintain social distancing (while this may be more difficult in a cruise ship, it is still possible to maintain at least a meter between yourself and your colleagues/crew at all times)
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Avoid all physical contact with passengers/crew (if you are particularly fond of shaking hands, try to replace it with an “elbow bump”!)
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Avoid touching your eyes or mouth where possible.
These measures are the bare minimum that any responsible crew member should take before, during and after embarking and should feature in the minds of all members of cruises after Covid 19. However, the crew only make a very small minority of the actual population of the ship, if you want to maintain a healthy ship, all of this needs to be taken on board (pun intended!) by the guests. Which is why it’s important to…
Step 3: Maintain safe, constant and informative contact with the guests
So you are aware of the symptoms and know what you can do to prevent COVID-19, that’s great! But it also doesn’t mean anything if this information has not reached your guests. Even the most perfectly laid prevention plans and preparations can go up in flames very quickly if the guests are not properly advised and directed. Let’s start with prevention: it’s likely that most guests will come aboard with a basic knowledge of disease prevention (this past month has basically been a crash-course in epidemiology for most of us!) But you should be doing everything you can to supplement this knowledge, you can start by:
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Creating informative publications on where the nearest handwashing stations are and what guests can do to stay healthy- then hang these publications in places with a large amount of traffic or necessity for hygiene (e.g. buffets and other close quarters communal spaces)
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Create handy 1 meter marks for spaces which are prone to queuing, most guests will want to adhere to this anyway and will appreciate the guidance
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Spread your new-found knowledge on COVID symptoms and prevention where possible, especially encouraging those who present symptoms to inform a member of the crew.
These are just a few of my own suggestions, there will likely be much of this and more in your employers pandemic prevention protocols but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t supplement it! Desperate times call for keen innovation and that all starts with you as an individual employee.
In addition to learning your employer's hygiene and prevention policy, you should also be prepared to quote it at a moment's notice in the eventuality that a guest asks you. People are scared, and rightly so, this pandemic is like nothing most of us have ever seen before. But as long as you follow the above tips, and any other measures that your employer is putting in place- you are part of the solution! So be sure to remind guests of this, as everyone could use a little reassurance right now!
