Under-fire cruise Carnival pledges to follow official rules on cruises

Cruise company Carnival on Tuesday promised to follow social distancing measures on restarted cruises amid mounting questions over its handling of the coronavirus crisis.

The FTSE 100 company, which saw at least nine of its ships experience an outbreak of coronavirus including the Diamond Princess, clarified that a restart would only be done in co-operation with government officials and follow official health advice.

The firm is facing criticism over its handling of coronavirus after suggestions it was slow to act on outbreaks.

The company on Monday said it would restart some US cruises on August 1 but on Tuesday was forced to stress that resumption depended on co-operation from “federal, state, local and international government officials”. It said this because it felt some media reports had “not fully conveyed” the cooperation .

Carnival is currently under investigation by the US Congress and is facing demands to turn over all internal documents related to Covid-19.

Carnival said it is “fully co-operating” with the probe. It has previously said it acted on information in “real-time”.

Eight people died on the Diamond Princess, including a British victim who became the first UK death.