LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Carnival was one of the heaviest fallers on the FTSE 100 on Monday, after US lawmakers opened an inquiry into its handling of outbreaks of Covid-19 onboard its cruise ships.
The US House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure is to investigate the number of cases onboard and how Carnival responded to them.

More than 1,500 cases that were confirmed across all of Carnival's ships, and both passengers and crew members have died. The company, which is listed in London and New York, has now suspended all cruises, and in early April, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention extended its no sail order for all cruise ships for up to 100 days.

Committee chair Peter DeFazio, along with the chair of the House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation, Sean Patrick Maloney, have written to Carnival requesting all records detailing the company's response to the outbreak. Letters requesting information were also sent to the CDCP and the US Coast Guard.

DeFazio wrote: "We would hope that the reality of the Covid-19 pandemic will have faced a renewed emphasis on public health and passenger safety, but frankly that has not been seen up to this point.

"It seems as though Carnival Corporation and its portfolio of nine cruise liners, which represents 109 cruise ships, is still trying to sell this cruise line fantasy and ignoring the public health threat."

In one of the most high-profile incidents, in February Carnival's Diamond Princess cruise ship was quarantined in the port Yokohama, Japan. Of the 712 passengers eventually infected on the ship, nine died.

Then in March, the company's Grand Princess cruise ship was barred from returning to port in San Francisco. On that ship, 21 passengers were eventually infected and one died.

Carnival chief executive Arnold Donald has insisted that the company followed all relevant protocols as set out by international authorities when handling onboard outbreaks such as these.

Leisure and hospitality stocks have been some of the worst hit since the Covid-19 outbreak, and Carnival has been one of the weakest performers within that. Its share price has tumbled 74% in the last three months.

On Monday, it led the blue chip fallers' board for much of the day, and by 1430 BST was off a little over 10% at 899.60p in London.

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