The new COVID-19 explosion triggered contagion investigations on cruise ships by the authorities in the United States, as some shipping companies tighten measures and further limit their occupation in the hope that the new and highly contagious omicron variant will be less deadly .
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, in English) of the United States investigates the outbreak of the last seven days in 68 cruise ships in the middle of Christmas, despite the almost total vaccination of the crew and passengers.
Michael Bayley, President of Royal Caribbean, a company that recently stopped new reservations for the first weeks of January due to omicron, said that he expects it to be the “beginning of the end of this virus and its transformation to spread quickly and be less harmful, like the common cold (if you are vaccinated) ”.
Contagion resurfaces on board
While the authorities decipher the scope of the new strain, the pandemic continues to ruin the Christmas plans of many travelers, either by decision of shipping companies, frightened or infected travelers who aborted their plans or by governments, who have the last word to decide. time to allow the arrival of ships to their countries.
On Sunday he returned to Miami (Florida) the “Carnival Freedom”After being rejected on the Caribbean island of Bonaire for a small outbreak of the pathogen.
That same day, the “Odyssey of the Seas”After fifty of its passengers and crew tested positive despite the fact that they were 95% vaccinated.
This Royal Caribbean International ship withdrew from its trip to the Caribbean islands of Curaçao and Aruba as a precautionary measure.
Last Thursday the Holland America cruise ship Koningsdam, which was going to stop in Puerto Vallarta (Mexico) had to return to San Diego (USA) after the Mexican authorities rejected it due to the fact that a score of members of the crew were infected.
A day before, the health authorities of Cartagena (Colombia) denied the disembarkation of the passengers and crew of the “Seven Seas Mariner”, From Regent Seven Seas Cruises, after the captain reported seven positive cases.
The ship came from Florida, a state where the contagion soared last Saturday, with about 33,000 daily cases, the highest registered in Florida since March 2020.
Investigations, but not seriously ill
Investigations of cruise ships with infected passengers and crew have skyrocketed in the last week, according to data updated Monday by the CDC.
About seventy ships are under a “yellow” alert because in the last seven days at least 0.10% of the passengers have presented contagion of COVID-19 or symptoms of the virus (for example, if there are at least 6,500 passengers on board seven of those cases).
This percentage includes passenger cases that occur within five days of disembarkation and reported to the CDC by state or local health departments.
Similarly, this alert applies if one or more crew members are infected, or if the shipping company has failed in the last week with the daily report on the pandemic.
Bayley, executive director of Royal Caribbean, specified in his Facebook account that the investigations are “bad and good news.”
“More and more reports confirm what we are seeing on board! This new variant spreads quickly, but no one (vaccinated) seems to get very sick”, He stressed.
In that sense, he recalled that the CDC has recognized that in the “Odyssey of the Seas“, Which presented contagion of 55 people,”there have been no hospitalizations, medical evacuations, use of ventilators, or deaths”By COVID-19.
Bayley further noted that, with the new variant, positivity rates on some Royal Caribbean ships are around 1%, well below the U.S. national rate (from about 15% in the last seven days) and the states of its large home ports in Florida, California and Texas.
To prevent the spread of the virus, Royal Caribbean has limited the occupancy of its ships and stopped last week cruise bookings scheduled for before mid-January.
Likewise, it announced as a temporary measure due to the omicron strain the return to the mandatory use of masks, as did Carnival Cruise Line and Norwegian, all based in Miami, in closed spaces except when passengers are eating or drinking.
The Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), which represents 95% of companies with ocean cruises, recalled that this industry is leading the way with strict health and safety measures.
He noted that the protocols include tests, vaccination, detection, sanitation, improved ventilation, use of masks and physical distancing, among others.
The organization projects that the shipping industry will reactivate its full capacity by mid-2022.
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