Six vexed passengers on royal Caribbean test positive for COVID
Four vaccinated adults and two unvaccinated minors tested positive for the coronavirus during routine end-of-trip screening Thursday on Royal Caribbean International's Adventure of the Seas.
All six passengers were quarantined right away, and their travel companions and close contacts tested negative. According to the cruise line, the passengers left the ship Friday with their travel groups in Freeport, Bahamas, and they were sent home on private flights, with transportation provided directly to their homes. USA Today's Morgan Hines, who was on the ship, was the first to report the news.
Both asymptomatic minors were in the same travel party, but not with any adults who tested positive. The four vaccinated adults were not travelling together. Three were asymptomatic, and one had mild symptoms, Royal Caribbean spokeswoman Lyan Sierra-Caro said.
Sierra-Caro said the cruise line could not determine on board whether the passengers were infected with the fast-spreading delta variant.
"We are going to be doing additional tests so we can look into this," she said in an email.
Health officials have sounded alarms about the highly contagious variant, saying that vaccinated people who are infected might transmit the virus as easily as the unvaccinated. The CDC recommended this week that even vaccinated people wear masks indoors in areas of high or substantial community transmission.
Adventure of the Seas, which left from Nassau on Saturday for a weeklong voyage, requires crew and passengers 16 and older to be fully vaccinated against the virus. That vaccine age requirement will change to 12 for cruises leaving Nassau starting Sunday.
According to Royal Caribbean's health protocols, all passengers 2 years of age and older must present a negative PCR test no more than five days before arriving in the Bahamas. However, that requirement will change Sunday to either a PCR or antigen test three days before sailing. Passengers get tested again before the cruise ends to meet government health requirements.
About 1,100 guests are onboard Adventure of the Seas - roughly 35% of capacity - along with around 900 crew members. Before arriving in Freeport on Friday, the ship stopped at the cruise line's private Bahamian island and Cozumel, Mexico. The cruise will end Saturday in Nassau.
Adventure of the Seas started sailing from Nassau in early June, at a time when cruise ships were still banned from departing from U.S. ports. Royal Caribbean said that two young unvaccinated passengers on the ship had tested positive for the virus later that month.
Other isolated cases on cruises have emerged, including in vaccinated passengers. Cruise line executives have acknowledged that infections are impossible to rule out but say the important thing is to keep them from becoming outbreaks. The industry shut down globally in March of 2020. While cruises restarted earlier in some parts of the world, ships only started sailing again regularly from North America in recent months. A small number now are sailing from states including Florida, Texas and Washington, with more set to join in August.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is tracking 64 ships sailing under its jurisdiction, either with passengers or with crew only. Of those, 21 have recently reported covid cases, according to the CDC, based on surveillance data from the past seven days.
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