Coronavirus pandemic: Updates from around the world – CNN International

A man from Winter Springs, Florida, told CNN on Monday that he has been stuck on a cruise ship and then a hospital ship in an Italian port for 62 days after testing positive for Covid-19 in early April.

Grimes set sail mid-January from Genoa, Italy, on his second cruise as an employee of MSC Cruises, a global cruise company headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. Grimes worked in the jewelry store on their Mediterranean route.

On March 17, a friend of Grimes and fellow employee tested positive for Covid-19, Grimes said. After consulting with the ship doctor and captain, Grimes said he "voluntarily went into isolation." Fifteen days later, he also tested positive, Grimes said.

Grimes has since been tested seven more times and has received a mixture of positive and negative results, he said.

Grimes said he hopes his eighth Covid-19 test result will be negative, so he can return to the United States.

The American Embassy confirmed to the family it is Italian policy that cruise ship employees may not be released from a ship until they have tested negative in two subsequent tests, Ann Grimes said.

"We don't question that that's the standard," Ann Grimes said. "It's the fact the testing is so sketchy. How can you be in quarantine for 62 consecutive days and still be testing positive?"

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Coronavirus pandemic: Updates from around the world - CNN International