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DuPont Personal Protection, RecoveryPRO and BELFOR Group teamed up to conduct a deep cleaning aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship following an outbreak of COVID-19 among its passengers and crew in February 2020. The collaboration among the companies, along with protocol guidance established by global health and safety organizations, resulted in an effective clean and disinfect solution enabling the ship to be deemed safe to sail, according to DuPont.
When the onboard outbreak surfaced in February 2020, the ship docked in Yokohama, Japan. Due to the severity of the virus, the Japanese government required the Diamond Princess to complete a two-month quarantine for the more than 2,600 passengers and 1,000 crew members on the ship before remediation could be pursued. Once it was deemed safe to proceed by the Japanese Ministry of Health and Princess Cruises, interim recommendations and protocols developed by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the National Institute of Infectious Diseases were used to undertake a heavy-duty surface cleaning.
According to DuPont, a comprehensive cleaning and disinfection of the ship was needed to remove the threat of infection and to prevent the spread of future disease. Training and education were key pieces of the cleaning plan.
RecoveryPRO led the clean and disinfection project aboard the ship with assistance from its parent company BELFOR Group. DuPont Tyvek personal protective garments were used to help keep the frontline cleaning crew workers safe.
The limited global supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) coupled with the need for garments to outfit three crews working 24-hour shifts presented additional challenges that had to be overcome for successful remediation of the vessel. Despite these challenges and an unprecedented global demand for PPE, DuPont immediately responded by providing the proper PPE solutions for daily cleaning and disinfecting operations aboard the Diamond Princess.
"We are proud of our partnership with BELFOR Group and RecoveryPRO and how we all worked together to help ensure the safety of hundreds of essential workers while addressing this critical clean and disinfect need," said David Domnisch, global business director at DuPont, in a press release.