Crew members sue Celebrity Cruises over response to coronavirus pandemic

More than 1,000 Celebrity Cruises employees have joined a class action lawsuit filed Tuesday in Miami, alleging that the company knew how easily the novel coronavirus could spread on ships yet still did not do enough to protect crew members working on board.

In February, the Diamond Princess ship was placed under quarantine in Japan for two weeks, with 712 passengers and crew members testing positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus. The lawsuit states that this was an "early warning of how easily COVID-19 could spread on massive ocean liners," yet Celebrity Cruises still had its crew members eat buffet-style, attend parties, and participate in drills on board despite "having notice that COVID-19 was and/or likely was present aboard the vessels."

Last month, a crew member on the Celebrity Infinity died after displaying coronavirus-like symptoms, and attorney Michael Winkleman told ABC News the cruise line "egregiously failed to take even the most basic steps to protect its crew members from the rampant spread of coronavirus."

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The plaintiff representing the class in the suit is Alexandra Nedeltcheva, who worked in the food and beverage department on the Celebrity Apex. She boarded the ship on March 2, and said there were "no masks, no screenings." She tested positive for COVID-19 at the end of March, and said most of her colleagues are sick because "we were the ones in constant contact with all the other people on board." She was able to leave the ship after being in quarantine, and told ABC News, "I pray to God that everybody's safe. The guests are very important, but we're also human at the end of the day."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that over the last two months, COVID-19 outbreaks on three cruise ships have resulted in more than 800 confirmed cases in the United States amid passengers and 10 deaths. There are about 18,900 crew members still on board 25 cruise ships that are anchored in U.S. waters, the U.S. Coast Guard told ABC News on Monday, and 20,900 crew members on 26 cruise ships moored in U.S. ports.