Silver Spirit becomes first ultra-luxury cruise ship to sail with new CIP-M certification from DNV GL

Awarded on 24th August 2020, Silversea’s ultra-luxury Silver Spirit has become the first ultra-luxury cruise ship to sail with a certification in infection prevention for maritime (CIP-M) from DNV GL, the world’s leading classification society. The certification of Silversea demonstrates the cruise line’s commitment to enhancing its onboard sanitation protocols to further protect the health, safety and wellbeing of its guests and crew.

The CIP-M programme is built on DNV GL Healthcare’s expertise in infection risk management. Using the experience from over 4,000 audits in more than 640 hospitals worldwide, experts from DNV GL Maritime’s Cruise Center in Miami and leading medical professionals, tailored the existing infection prevention programme for hospitals to meet the needs of shipowners and operators. The certification is built on a unique combination of technical maritime knowledge and infection prevention expertise and is the most comprehensive infection prevention certification available in the maritime industry.

“We are proud to become the first ultra-luxury cruise line to gain the certification in infection prevention for maritime, demonstrating our unwavering commitment to protecting the health, safety and wellbeing of our guests, crew and the destinations we visit,” says Roberto Martinoli, Silversea’s President and CEO. “Informed by the work of the Royal Caribbean Group’s Healthy Sail Panel, we are working hard to enhance our already exceptional sanitation procedures on board. Beginning with Silver Spirit, we will continue to work with DNV GL to gain certification across the rest of our fleet to provide the safest possible conditions for our healthy return to sailing, when the time is right to do so.”

Silver Spirit’s new three-year certification is tailored to the ship and has been awarded following a close audit of all aspects of operations. After an initial company audit that concluded on August 5th, a comprehensive onboard survey was completed on August 14th, 2020. Focus areas of the audits included:

  • The cruise line’s COVID-19 outbreak prevention and response plan, 
  • infection prevention leadership and communication flow, 
  • medical equipment management, 
  • and infection risk management processes. 
“We are pleased to award Silversea our Certification in Infection Prevention (CIP-M) for Maritime, which was developed as a holistic solution to the protracted pressures facing the maritime and cruise industries,” says Knut Ørbeck-Nilssen, CEO of DNV GL – Maritime. “As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to create a high level of public concern about the maintenance of health and safety on board cruise ships, we hope that our new certification will serve the dual purpose of helping to build passenger and crew confidence while also enhancing the cruise industry’s HSE standards.” Through annual surveys on board and company audits ashore, DNV GL verifies that a company maintains a detailed operational plan in compliance with the CIP-M requirements. Integrating maritime specific standards, such as the US CDC Vessel Sanitation Program (VSP), DNV GL’s teams of healthcare experts perform the certification surveys in combination with experienced maritime auditors, resulting in an unrivalled depth of expertise.