A crew member who boarded the cruise ship Costa Diadema a few days ago tested positive for Covid-19, reports Italian news agency ANSA.

Costa Cruises flagship Costa Smeralda, arrived this morning in the port of Savona for final preparations ahead of the planned restart in the Mediterranean scheduled for 10 October.

Gejay Logdat is a 28 years old, Costa Cruises Barboy and Owner of Jay’s HomeMade Longganisa. After he was repatriated back home to the Philippines, Logdat and his wife decided to open a business in Las Pinas and overcome the global crisis together. The family business is now selling and making delivery of a wide range of products, such as chicharon, suka, atchara, and sisig and homemade kimchi.

The Italian cruise line Costa Cruises has announced it will temporarily cut the salaries for 15% of the crew members currently onboard the ships. The pay cuts are part of a plan to preserve the jobs of all shoreside and shipboard employees. To reach this objective all Costa employees will have to give their personal contribution as the company prepares to restart cruises is September with the Costa Deliziosa from Trieste and the Costa Diadema from Genoa.

Costa Cruises announced today that the company has obtained RINA Biosafety Trust Certification, further enhancing health protocols for a responsible and safe restart of voyages in September, with Costa Deliziosa and Costa Diadema. As part of the safety protocols all guest bording the ships will perform the antigenic Covid-19 swab tests.

Costa Cruises released the latest update of the fleet restart with adjusted departure dates. According to the announcement, 5 Costa ships will set sail in August, starting with Costa Pacifica scheduled to depart from Genoa on August 21. Most of the new departure dates are adjusted by a day or two from the previously announced, as the company makes final preparations for the fleet restart.

The Greek cruise line Celestyal Cruises announced today that the company have entered into agreements with Costa Cruises for the acquisition of Costa NeoRomantica. An agreement with Costa Crociere SpA for the acquisition of the Costa neoRomantica cruise ship on favorable terms has been signed through its subsidiary Louis Group.

The Italian cruise line Costa Cruises plans to resume sailings on seven of it’s cruise ships by the end of January 2021. According to the presentation, in the first phase of the plan only Italian guests will board the cruise ships, with limited occupancy and strict health and safety protocols. The first ships to resume cruising will sail round trips to Italian ports and with a possible stop in Valleta, Malta, according to the plan.

200 Indonesian crew members from the Costa Cruises ships anchored off the coast of Manila bay were repatriated yesterday evening.

With the disembarkation of the last group of Italian crew and supervisors which was finalized yesterday, the cruise ship Costa Mediterranea has finally completed repatriation of all crew members on board. After disembarking the Indonesian crew in Jakarta, Costa Mediterranea arrived in Manila Bay on June 22, to repatriate around 700 Filipino crew.