Passengers of the Zandaam cruise ship have filed a class-action lawsuit against the Holland America Line and its parent company, Carnival Corporation, for failing to provide the safety of passengers and lower the risk of COVID-19 infection, after it became known that the virus had spread on other company ships, the USA Today newspaper reported
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th June, 2020) Passengers of the Zandaam cruise ship have filed a class-action lawsuit against the Holland America Line and its parent company, Carnival Corporation, for failing to provide the safety of passengers and lower the risk of COVID-19 infection, after it became known that the virus had spread on other company ships, the USA Today newspaper reported.
The ship departed from Argentina to Chile on March 7 but was forced to cancel its voyage due to Holland America Line halting its operations on March 13. The ship was unable to port in several South American countries and could not allow its passengers to disembark until early April � in Florida. Four people died during the ordeal, two of which were supposedly due to the coronavirus disease, and one crew member died almost immediately afterward.
The lawsuit, filed by Leonard Lindsay and Carl Zehner on behalf of more than 1,000 fellow passengers, demands that apart from financial compensation, changes in the companies' business practices be enacted, including the implementation of disinfection and sanitation procedures and proper social distancing rules, according to the news outlet.
Zandaam was not the company's first ship to become involved in a coronavirus scandal, as the Carnival Corporation also owns Diamond Princess, which was stranded in Japan earlier in the year due to a COVID-19 outbreak aboard.
