by Donald Wood
Last updated: 12:00 AM ET, Tue July 21, 2020
Due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, Royal Caribbean International announced continued delays on the construction of what will become the world's largest cruise ship.
Royal Caribbean's Chinese website, the construction taking place on the Wonder of the Seas at the Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyard in St. Nazaire, France, has been paused for the foreseeable future.
The cruise line did not release a new date for expected delivery for the 5,448-passenger vessel, which was previously set to sail from Shanghai in 2021.
"The coronavirus pandemic has caused an unprecedented impact on the global cruise ship industry and the construction of the new Wonder of the Seas was delayed due to the impact of it in shipyard operations," Royal Caribbean said on its website. "We look forward to the arrival of Wonder of the Seas after the epidemic has been brought under control."
Earlier this month, Royal Caribbean revealed the debut of the 4,200-passenger Odyssey of the Seas had also been delayed from November 2020 to April 2021. The cruise line said, "the health crisis has unfortunately impacted shipyard operations, as well as our supply chain."
The Centers for Disease Control has extended its No Sail Order for cruise ships once again, which now prevents vessels from sailing through September 30, 2020. In its executive summary, the CDC points to the number of outbreaks on cruise ships.
"These data have also revealed a total of 99 outbreaks on 123 different cruise ships, meaning that 80 percent of ships within US jurisdiction were affected by Covid-19 during this timeframe," the CDC noted in the summary.
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