When Are Cruise Ships Sailing Again
(CNN) — At least four body of water prowl ships were turned away from ports of phone call or were prohibited from letting passengers disembark in the Americas this week because of Covid-xix cases aboard.
Though other cruises have had cases since US-based ships resumed service this summer with vaccine requirements and other measures meant to minimize outbreaks, the rate of cruises forced to alter their itineraries appears to have ticked up.
The disruptions nonetheless are a far cry from March 2020, when the pandemic shut down the industry and led to weeks of efforts to get already embarked passengers and crew members home as ports airtight to virus-hit vessels.
Yet, this week'southward disruptions came among global business organisation about the highly transmissible Omicron coronavirus variant, and as Covid-xix instance rates rose in the US and elsewhere.
The recent prowl ship disruptions include:
• Mexican officials prevented the Holland America Line Koningsdam from letting its passengers disembark in Puerto Vallarta on Thursday after 21 crew members tested positive for Covid-19, the Jalisco state health department said.
A "small number of fully vaccinated crew" tested positive and all showed either mild or no symptoms, The netherlands America Line told CNN.
The Koningsdam.
Alfredo Martinez/Getty Images
Jalisco health authorities initially were going to allow people testing negative to disembark. However, they changed their mind, citing an "exponential growth of confirmed cases in the crew" past Th, the department said. But one crew member had tested positive less than a week earlier, the department said.
The send, which departed San Diego on December 19 with more 1,000 passengers and more than than 870 crew members, visited Cabo San Lucas and Mazatlán before it arrived in Puerto Vallarta. Information technology was due to return to San Diego as scheduled on Sunday.
Holland America Line, similar the other cruise companies in this story, requires passengers and coiffure to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19, with some exceptions for children.
• Ports in the Caribbean islands of Bonaire and Aruba turned away the Carnival Freedom ship on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, after "a minor number" of people aboard tested positive for Covid-19, the prowl line said.
Even so, the visitor lined up a replacement stop Friday in the Dominican Republic.
It was allowed to stop in Curacao on Tuesday. Dr. Izzy Gerstenbluth, the national epidemiologist for Curacao, said the send alerted him earlier it arrived that crew members had tested positive. After he visited the ship and determined the cases were independent amid the crew, Curacao immune the transport's passengers to get out the send, with the crew remaining on board, he said.
The send returned to Miami as planned on Sunday, the cruise line said.
Passenger Jim Storupski told CNN chapter WPLG his experience onboard was positive, adding the visitor was "very accommodating." His wife, Connie, praised the visitor for its Covid-19 safety protocols and said they "had a expert time." The couple said they plan to sail with the company over again in two weeks.
Other passengers reported a different feel. "It was horrible," Leah Murray told WPLG of her frustration over the Covid-19 cases aboard. "They didn't inform usa of hardly anything. They let everybody go about their business." She said she felt the line was "very irresponsible" with Covid-19 protocols.
The Royal Caribbean area Odyssey of The Seas.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
• Officials in Curacao and Aruba turned away the Regal Caribbean area Odyssey of the Seas this calendar week after 55 fully vaccinated crew members and passengers contracted Covid-19, the Miami Herald reported Wednesday.
Curacao wellness officials decided the percent of people aboard who tested positive was too loftier for the nation to allow the ship to dock, the Curacao Chronicle reported.
The ship is due to render to Florida'due south Fort Lauderdale as planned on Dominicus.
According to Imperial Caribbean area, the ship can conform up to 5,550 guests plus one,600 crew members. It wasn't articulate whether the send was fully occupied.
The Seven Seas Mariner.
Manfred Segerer/ullstein bild/Getty Images
• Colombian officials prevented the Seven Seas Mariner from letting anyone disembark in Cartagena on Wed, after 7 positive Covid-19 cases -- in 6 crew members and one passenger -- were reported. The ship began an 18-day trip from Miami to San Francisco on December 18.
Also this calendar month, at least 48 people who were aboard the Royal Caribbean Symphony of the Seas tested positive for Covid-19, the cruise line said after the ship finished its trip in Miami December eighteen. That ship, carrying more half-dozen,000 passengers and crew members, stopped at three islands and did non written report an itinerary disruption.
The disruptions so far have affected a minor fraction of operating cruise ships
The contradistinct cruises stand for a small fraction of the dozens of cruise ships underway in the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, the wider Atlantic and the Pacific at whatsoever given time this month.
Positive Covid-19 tests aboard prowl ships aren't unique to this month -- they have happened other times since cruises resumed departures from U.s.a. shores this summer.
In August, for instance, 27 people tested positive aboard a Funfair cruise ship before it called on a port in Belize City.
Now, the spread of the Omicron variant "may shape how some destination authorities view even a small number of cases, even when they are beingness managed with our vigorous protocols," Carnival spokesperson AnneMarie Mathews told CNN Fri in a prepared statement.
"Some destinations have limited medical resources and are focused on managing their own local response to the variant," Mathews added.
"Should it be necessary to cancel a port, we volition do our all-time to find an alternative destination," Mathews said.
Health and safety protocols
Cruise companies implemented many onboard health and safety requirements -- and have updated them as conditions changed -- to avoid a repeat of bound 2020. That included requiring Covid-nineteen vaccines for coiffure members and passengers (with exceptions for children), with vaccines offer stiff protection confronting severe illness and death.
The companies recommend booster shots for their passengers. Holland America Line says its coiffure members receive boosters as before long as they are eligible.
Cruise companies generally crave their passengers to exam negative for Covid-19 before starting the trip, and require frequent testing of their crews.
Passengers testing positive during the trip mostly are required to isolate
United states-based cruises besides require masks to be worn in indoor public areas. That policy was recently updated to extend indoor mask-wearing to fully vaccinated passengers.
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Source: https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/cruise-ships-covid-19-disruption/index.html
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