The House Transportation Committee is investigating how Carnival Cruise Line dealt with coronavirus outbreaks on its cruise ships in early March.
Earlier this year, nine Carnival Cruise ships had 1,500 confirmed coronavirus cases on board, including 39 deaths of crew members and passengers. Now, lawmakers are asking the company to relinquish documents associated with the onboard outbreak.
"We would hope that the reality of the COVID-19 pandemic will place a renewed emphasis on public health and passenger safety, but frankly that has not been seen up to this point," Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., chairman of the transportation committee, wrote in a letter to Carnival.
DeFazio also requested information related to the outbreaks from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Coast Guard.
"It seems as though Carnival Corporation and its portfolio of nine cruise lines, which represents 109 cruise ships, is still trying to sell this cruise line fantasy and ignoring the public health threat," DeFazio said.
A report published by Bloomberg in mid-April revealed that Carnival executives knew about the outbreak on their ships but didn't act immediately.
"They suggest that officials at Carnival were aware of the threats to some of its ships and did not take appropriate actions, which may have led to greater infections and the spread of the disease," DeFazio wrote in his letter, referring to the Bloomberg report.
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