Carnival, World Travel and Tourism Council, Partner on COVID-19 Scientific Summit

(3:35 p.m. EDT) -- Carnival Corporation & plc has partnered with the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) for a virtual summit that convenes leading global scientists and health experts to outline insights and best practices for dealing with the ongoing global COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.The free virtual summit, which is open to members of the public and will be held on July 28 between 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. EDT, will share the latest scientific knowledge on the prevention, detection, treatment and mitigation of the COVID-19 virus.The summit will offer panels covering a wide array of COVID-19-related topics, including ones on the virus's epidemiology (incubation periods and disease progression from exposure to illness); transmission; screening and testing; therapeutics (status of vaccine development); and practical risk mitigation. The last one will delve into how to manage the risks of social gatherings and the role of testing, contract tracing, and the psychology of virus-based fear.The summit will discuss travel overall, not just cruise. Gloria Guevara, president and CEO of the WTTC, states that Carnival Corporation president and CEO Arnold Donald was a driving force in setting it up."The science of this virus is rapidly evolving and these real-time insights will be invaluable in helping us determine evidence-based protection and mitigation measures to combat COVID-19," Guevara said. "They will also help drive global alignment and collaboration on the frontiers of science and policy, which is critical to the survival of this important sector."COVID-19 has had a crushing global socio-economic impact and is threatening the jobs of millions of people whose very livelihoods depend upon a thriving Travel & Tourism sector for their survival."While serving as president and CEO of Carnival Corporation, Arnold Donald is also a member of the WTTC Executive Committee and functions as its vice chair for North America. Carnival Corp. is producing the summit in conjunction with the WTC."Our highest responsibility and top priorities are compliance, protecting the environment and the safety, health and well-being of our guests, our crew members and the people in the communities we visit," said Donald. "Throughout the pause in our guest operations, we have been consulting and assembling the best minds in medical science, public health and infectious disease control....Hopefully, this Summit will be an efficient way for attendees to become more informed about COVID-19 in the space of just a few hours."Carnival's announcement comes on the heels of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings partnership with Royal Caribbean Group to develop health and safety protocols to enable the industry to return to service; and MSC Cruises' own initiative to strengthen the health and safety protocols for its own fleet.Registration for the joint summit between the WTTC and Carnival Corporation can be made on

CovidScienceSummit.com

. Registration opens on Wednesday, July 8, 2020 at 8 a.m. EDT.