Third Royal Caribbean Cruise Ship Hit with COVID-19 Outbreak

BY ANNA JEAN KAISER

UPDATED JANUARY 06, 2022 8:35 PM
Royal Caribbean’s Harmony of the Seas holiday voyage from Port Canaveral went awry for many passengers, after they or their family members tested positive for COVID-19. The cruise ship left on Dec. 26 and stopped in Cozumel, Mexico; Roatan, Honduras; Costa Maya, Mexico; and CocoCay, Royal Caribbean’s private island in the Bahamas, and returned to Florida Jan. 2. Since Dec. 18, Harmony of the Seas, which has room for 6,780 passengers, is at least the fifth ship to sail in and out of Florida ports and have a coronavirus outbreak on board. And it’s the third Royal Caribbean ship to experience COVID-19 infections on board while sailing from this state during that period. The cruise line’s Symphony of the Seas had at least 48 coronavirus cases and the Oasis of the Seas had 55. The Miami Herald spoke with four groups of passengers who had at least one person in their party test positive for COVID-19 while sailing on that Harmony of the Seas’ holiday voyage. Royal Caribbean didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment about the infections on that voyage, including the number of passengers and crew members infected. Carnival Freedom was recently denied entry to the islands of Aruba and Bonaire due to COVID-19 cases, but the cruise operator Carnival Cruise Line would not comment on the number of infected people on board. The Norwegian Pearl turned around on the second day of an 11-day cruise around the Caribbean and Wednesday returned to PortMiami.
With the rapid spread of the omicron variant, accompanied by a worrying number of COVID-19 cases among fully vaccinated people, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Dec. 30 advised against cruising even for those inoculated. The CDC reported there were 5,013 confirmed COVID-19 cases on cruise ships between Dec. 15 and 29, compared to just 162 cases in the two weeks prior, Nov. 30 to Dec. 14. According to the CDC’s database for COVID-19 on cruise ships as of Wednesday, all 92 cruise ships currently sailing in U.S. waters had people on board infected by COVID-19. Seasonne Rose, 42, is an actor who lives in Austin, Texas, and was aboard Harmony of the Seas with her 7-year-old daughter, who tested positive on Dec. 31 after running a fever the day before. When her daughter tested positive, Rose asked for a test herself but said she was never given one. She said the lack of information from Royal Caribbean was frustrating. “We understood there could be COVID-19 on board ... but it was like dealing with the wild wild west from the moment you test positive,” Rose said. “They wouldn’t tell us what was going on. They’re not being transparent with passengers. ... There’s a false sense of security.” Harmony of the Seas’ passengers told the Miami Herald the ship’s captain never specified how many COVID-19 cases there were among passengers or crew.

Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/tourism-cruises/article257063567.html#storylink=cpy