Nearly 50 people on board the Royal Caribbean’s Symphony of the Seas cruise ship have tested positive for Covid-19.
The cruise line confirmed that out of 6,074 passengers and crew members, 48 tested positive for the coronavirus infection after the cruise ended in Miami on Saturday.
Lyan Sierra-Caro, director of public relations at Royal Caribbean International (RCI) said that the cruise ship had also informed passengers that a passenger had tested positive for the Omicron variant.
“We were notified by the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] that a guest on board our 4th [December] cruise tested positive and it was identified as Omicron,” USA Today first reported her saying. “They [CDC] asked us to notify guests on the sailing, the one that ended today, and the current one.”
On Sunday, the Miami-based cruise ship said in a statement that each person who tested positive immediately went into quarantine. “Six people who tested positive disembarked the ship mid-voyage and were transported home. The remaining guests received assistance today upon our arrival,” Ms Sierro-Caro said.
Before boarding the ship, passengers who were aged 12 and above were required to be fully vaccinated and test negative for Covid-19. Children who were not eligible for a Covid vaccine were required to test negative for the coronavirus infection before they were allowed to board.
Ms Sierra-Caro said that those infected were identified through contact tracing after one guest tested positive and was quarantined. “Everyone who tested positive is asymptomatic, and we continually monitored their health,” she said.
The CDC confirmed that it was aware of the situation on the Royal Caribbean cruise ship and added that it was working with the cruise line to “gather more information about the cases and possible exposures, and RCI will be collecting specimens from the current voyage for genetic sequencing”.
Symphony of the Seas cruise ship was on a seven-night Caribbean itinerary and left Miami on 11 December and visited St Maarten, St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands and CocoCay — which is the cruise line’s private island in the Bahamas.
Some passengers had complained that the staff created confusion and that “they were so overwhelmed”.
James Johnson said that “they just kept saying something [and then] changing what they were saying. Everything was so confusing.” Mr Johnson, 36, tested negative for Covid-19 but his 66-year-old aunt tested positive.
Ms Sierra-Caro responded to allegations that protocol was not followed by saying “our staff was able to handle all the cases on board and we followed all of our protocols for testing and quarantine”.
The cruise ship’s plans won’t be affected, according to the Miami Herald. In fact, Symphony of the Seas has already left Miami for a new trip to Cozumel, Mexico, and is expected to arrive by 11am local time on 20 December.
Julia Simpson, the president and CEO of the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), a global tourism industry body, hoped that the tourism sector could “continue operating through the holidays for now” and warned of the economic impact of shutting down travel again.
A WTTC economic impact study found that the US lost 5.5 million tourism sector jobs during the pandemic.
“The WTTC believes that fully vaccinated travellers, during this precious time to see family and friends, should be able to travel freely,” she said. “It’s been proven that closing borders do not decrease the spread. If they close borders for the holiday season, it will be a serious blow to the travel and tourism sector.”
Earlier in December, another cruise ship, Norwegian Breakaway had reported at least 17 positive Covid cases onboard.
