Positive case of COVID on Paul Gauguin

[Petoonya]

This is very sad news indeed.

https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/news/covid-19-case-paul-gauguin-french-polynesia

Thought I read that the (RT) PCR test, that which is currently required 72 hours prior to flight, is highly accurate. But now read that it's accuracy is related the number of days after exposure, 5-8 days being the most accurate. (Don't quote me- hearsay.)

Unfortunate for the people on the ship. More unfortunate for French Polynesians who may have been exposed.

 

For those of us traveling soon or in 2021, I hope no one loses hope over this. There are other options and as we all know the testing process is being refined constantly. I'll post more about those on PG as soon as I hear something.

[susiesan]

Not looking good for Windstar in October. I am now losing hope.

[bigedwin]

This is very sad news indeed.
https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/news/covid-19-case-paul-gauguin-french-polynesia
Thought I read that the (RT) PCR test, that which is currently required 72 hours prior to flight, is highly accurate. But now read that it's accuracy is related the number of days after exposure, 5-8 days being the most accurate. (Don't quote me- hearsay.)
Unfortunate for the people on the ship. More unfortunate for French Polynesians who may have been exposed.
 
For those of us traveling soon or in 2021, I hope no one loses hope over this. There are other options and as we all know the testing process is being refined constantly. I'll post more about those on PG as soon as I hear something.

Well it had been going too good to be true.....

Best case scenario is a false positive.....

Now time to wait and see if the procedure in place works....
Not exactly the way you want to see if your plan of action is valid...
But hope the procedure works as intended and no other person gets COVID


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[minidonuts85]

Sounds like the 4-day follow up test picked it up?

[Petoonya]

14 minutes ago, minidonuts85 said:

Sounds like the 4-day follow up test picked it up?

Yes. What people do between getting the 72 hour test and flight time......????? In addition to the flight.

[susiesan]

The latest from FP High Commissioner's office:

 

As soon as the Paul Gauguin cruise ship docked, the person who had been tested positive via a self-test carried out 4 days after arriving aboard the ship, has done an additional RT-PCR test which confirmed its positivity.

This person was immediately removed from the cruise ship. A member of the person’s family who shared the same cabin has been tested and the result is negative. These two people have been placed with strict solitary confinement in a dedicated place.
 
According to the health protocol regulations, all ‘contact cases’, passengers and crew members, were quickly tested. The results of all ‘contact cases’ are negative. (Note, these are people who are known to have had direct contact with the positive case.)

Sampling of all remaining passengers and crew has been completed this evening and the results will be known tomorrow. The results will be shared through an official communication.

Pending these results, all other passengers and crew remain confined aboard the cruise ship in their cabins. The cruise company will keep passengers regularly informed about any further developments as they occur.

[new_cruiser]

I wouldn't have any confidence in the negative tests of crew and passengers so far. It may be too soon after exposure for tests to detect it. Follow up testing in a few days might have a different result.

[Barrycat]

Not that whatever it is will fully satisfy these poor people but it will be interesting to see what Ponant will do to compensate them. Granted the people on board were aware of the risk they were taking but Ponant was a bit too anxious to get foreigners on board.

Here is clip from the Ponant web site, if they only knew:

 

PONANT promises you unforgettable moments aboard our sleek and intimately sized cruise yachts,

 

 

[Petoonya]

1 hour ago, Barrycat said:

Granted the people on board were aware of the risk

Hi Barrycat-

Been watching the PG board for the last few months since it was announced that they'd be sailing in July. There was an 80+ year old couple if I recall correctly who were going to celebrate an anniversary on this first cruise. At least pre-COVID they'd planned to. Despite the risk and scary circumstances, Ponant would not refund payment, only FCC was offered. Wonder if they were onboard.

I wonder how many PG cruisers were caught in the same situation. The whole thing is painful to watch.

[bigedwin]

This is definitely a case study in the making.
Did the testing plan worked as planned.?
Was the response part of the plan?
What will be the options if people want to continue or stop the cruise?
What will the government in Tahiti allow WS to do?
Was it part of the plan?

They must have a plan in place with the possibility of this happening.
You don’t really start cruising with no plan B or C.

All cruise lines will be watching and hopefully learning best practices from this.




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[ridethetide]

1 hour ago, Petoonya said:

Hi Barrycat-

Been watching the PG board for the last few months since it was announced that they'd be sailing in July. There was an 80+ year old couple if I recall correctly who were going to celebrate an anniversary on this first cruise. At least pre-COVID they'd planned to. Despite the risk and scary circumstances, Ponant would not refund payment, only FCC was offered. Wonder if they were onboard.

I wonder how many PG cruisers were caught in the same situation. The whole thing is painful to watch.

Was this Ponant or PG? Conflicting reporting...

 

[Barrycat]

ridethetidea

Not conflicting reporting. The PG is part of Ponant. Just like the Wind Spirit is part of Windstar.

I'm sure that the PG followed Their plan. If someone shows the virus after the four day test, the ship retunes to Papeete with all passengers confined to their cabins. After arrival everyone on board is tested. NewCruiser makes a good point, it takes a few days for the virus to develop so if everyone tests ok does the ship resume its schedule or do they send everyone home as a precaution. To be continued.
 

Whatever happens this is a disaster for the passengers. This is a dream trip for many, at best they will miss ports if the cruise resumes, as worst they will need to arrange early transportation home and deal with all of the complications of cancellations, refunds, and on and on.

[ridethetide]

10 hours ago, Barrycat said:

ridethetidea

Not conflicting reporting. The PG is part of Ponant. Just like the Wind Spirit is part of Windstar.

I'm sure that the PG followed Their plan. If someone shows the virus after the four day test, the ship retunes to Papeete with all passengers confined to their cabins. After arrival everyone on board is tested. NewCruiser makes a good point, it takes a few days for the virus to develop so if everyone tests ok does the ship resume its schedule or do they send everyone home as a precaution. To be continued.
 

Whatever happens this is a disaster for the passengers. This is a dream trip for many, at best they will miss ports if the cruise resumes, as worst they will need to arrange early transportation home and deal with all of the complications of cancellations, refunds, and on and on.

And at the very worst, some may become ill with COVID-19!

[crilski]

Received this a little after midnight - Pacific Time from Tahiti Tourisme.  You can go in and sign up for their newsletter.  It is in both French and English.

 

Mr Dominique SORAIN, High Commissioner of the Republic, and Mr Edouard FRITCH, President of French Polynesia, announced this afternoon the results of the sampling of all passengers and crew members aboard the Paul Gauguin cruise ship. The results of the RT-PCR tests are all negative.

As a result, passengers will be able to disembark from the cruise ship within the next hours and join a place of confinement.
Prior to disembarkation, all passengers will be required to sign a declaration to respect a period of quarantine.

They will then be quarantined for a period of seven days, either at home for local residents or in an individual accommodation facility for non-residents.
This quarantine period will be monitored by the Public Health Surveillance Office (PHSO). 
 
In addition, the High Commissionner's sanitary platform will be in daily contact with all persons in quarantine in order to verify the evolution of their state of health, compliance with containment measures and their ongoing presence at the place indicated for quarantine.

In order not to take any risk, at the end of this observation period, each person monitored will be tested one more time by RT-PCR test.

The health protocol implemented and the early measures applied by the cruise liner made it possible to rapidly detect and isolate the confirmed case of Covid-19, limiting the chain of transmission aboard the ship.

Moving forward, this health protocol will be reinforced with the obligation for all cruise passengers to carry out a self-test before boarding the ship.

[susiesan]

The PG has now implemented an additional test done before anyone boards the ship. This is after you get a preflight test. And you still have to get a test 4 days after you enter FP. IF Windstar is still planning to cruise in October I am sure they will have to implement this new testing protocol. All this testing is making a Tahiti cruise look more like a hospital cruise. This is going to turn off a lot of people, including me.

[Petoonya]

I think it's great. Whatever I have to do to get to Tahiti and keep others safe in the meantime I'm all for.

Edited August 4, 2020 by Petoonya

[minidonuts85]

If WS requires a pre-cruise test with the results back prior to sailing, that will definitely be a game changer for us. Our 11-night sailing departs on a Sunday and we planned to fly in/arrive Saturday evening. We can’t arrive any earlier as we have four post-cruise days in Moorea from Wed-Sat and we can only take two weeks off from work at a time.
We have a year so I’ll just stay positive and hope things shake out! :)


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[Petoonya]

2 minutes ago, minidonuts85 said:

If WS requires a pre-cruise test with the results back prior to sailing, that will definitely be a game changer for us. Our 11-night sailing departs on a Sunday and we planned to fly in/arrive Saturday evening. We can’t arrive any earlier as we have four post-cruise days in Moorea from Wed-Sat and we can only take two weeks off from work at a time.
We have a year so I’ll just stay positive and hope things shake out! 🙂


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Agree Deb. Lots will have to shake out and hopefully evolve before we cruise. Guess this makes Big Edwins United-Tahiti webinar today a bit superfluous as it will probably be outdated since this current declaration. We shall see. Wonder how many cancellations this will cause for WS now? I can live with it, but just one of many.

[6rugrats]

There is more information and a couple posts from someone who was on this cruise,  in the roll call thread for PG cruise leaving 29 July.

Edited August 6, 2020 by 6rugrats