More than 50 people on board a boat from Royal Caribbean that sailed from Florida (USA) tested positive for COVID-19 while they were on a cruise ship in the Caribbean, the company reported a few days after reporting another outbreak on a boat that returned to Miami, local media reported this Thursday.
The firm noted that a total of 55 passengers and crew members of the Odyssey of the Seas, which sailed from a port in Fort Lauderdale on Saturday, tested positive for the disease during an eight-day cruise and in which 95% of the people on board had the “complete pattern vaccination “.
The finding prevented the vessel from making its planned stops on the Caribbean islands of Curaçao and Aruba, and it will have to keep sailing at sea until its return to southeast Florida on Sunday.
Royal Caribbean noted that the 55 people with COVID-19, who represent 1.1% of the total people on board, have mild or asymptomatic symptoms, and that their close contacts have been isolated for 24 hours before undergoing a diagnostic test.
The announcement comes less than a week after this company reported that 48 people from the boat Symphony of the Seas, designated as the largest cruise ship in the world, will test positive for covid-19 upon his return to the Port of Miami after a week-long journey in the Caribbean.
Royal Caribbean recalled that it requires its crews to be fully vaccinated and also to undergo weekly tests, while, to board, the passengers older than 12 years must also be fully vaccinated and present a negative test.
Last October, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, in English) extended until January 15 the conditions for traveling on cruise ships established during the pandemic of the COVID-19 from ports of the country, which expired on November 1.
Cruises are one of the sectors most affected by the pandemic in the US Given the number of infections registered on board these ships, for more than a year they could not sail from the country’s ports, which caused millions in losses to shipping companies .
