Silver Spirit Becomes the First Ultra-Luxury Cruise Ship to Sail with New CIP-M Certification from DNV GL

Silver Spirit Becomes the First Ultra-Luxury Cruise Ship to Sail with New CIP-M Certification from DNV GL

Awarded on August 24th, 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 program 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 program 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.

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

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 unrivaled depth of expertise.