- Forty-eight passengers and crew members tested positive for COVID-19 on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship.
- The outbreak occurred on the company’s Symphony of the Seas ship, part of its line of Oasis vessels that are the world’s largest cruise ships.
- There were 6,091 guests and crew members on board at the time.
A total of 48 passengers tested positive on the cruise ship Symphony of the Seas when it docked in Miami on Saturday, reports CNN quoting the operator Royal Caribbean.
COVID onboard cruise ship
Despite stringent measures supposed to keep ocean cruises Covid-free, operator Royal Caribbean says at least 48 people on board one of its ships that docked in Miami over the weekend have tested positive for the virus.
The Symphony of the Seas, the world’s biggest cruise ship, was carrying more than 6,000 passengers and crew on a week-long journey around the Caribbean when a guest tested positive, prompting wider contact tracing, according to Royal Caribbean.
Cruise ships had been touted as the one of the “safest” vacations available back in summer 2021 when the cruise industry restarted in the US with new Covid protocols, following an extensive pandemic shutdown.
The Symphony of the Seas was carrying 6,091 passengers and crew members. In a statement, Royal Caribbean said that after a guest tested positive during the voyage subsequent cases were detected following contact tracing.
‘Mild symptoms’
Royal Caribbean says it also implements additional health and safety measures, such as enhanced cleaning. On US-based cruises, masks are required to be worn in indoor public areas. This policy was recently updated to extend indoor mask-wearing requirements to fully vaccinated passengers.
“Each person quickly went into quarantine,” reads a Royal Caribbean statement on the Symphony of the Seas outbreak. “Everyone who tested positive were asymptomatic or had mild symptoms, and we continuously monitored their health.”
Symphony of the Seas departed from Miami, Florida on December 11, stopping at Caribbean ports St. Maarten and St. Thomas, as well as Royal Caribbean’s private island, called CocoCay.
The cruise line says in its statement that it disembarked six positive cases earlier in the cruise, while the other positive travelers disembarked on December 18, when the voyage came to an end.
Proactive approach to combat pandemic
The cruise line added that Symphony of the Seas’ future voyages weren’t impacted.
Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), the industry body that represents the world’s major cruise lines, said in a statement provided to CNN Travel that it was “monitoring developments related to the Omicron variant and remain closely engaged with local and national authorities in the places where cruises sail.”
CLIA said that on board protocols like testing, vaccination and mask-wearing “were designed with variants in mind.”
The association added that its member cruise lines will continue to take a “proactive approach” to responding to the pandemic as it develops.
Earlier in December, a spate of positive Covid cases were reported on board Norwegian Cruise Line ship Breakaway, which was traveling out of New Orleans.