Forty-four people on board Royal Caribbean's Symphony of the Seas cruise that ended Saturday tested positive for COVID-19, the cruise line said.
The cruise line also notified passengers on that sailing and on two others that a passenger who sailed on that ship during an earlier itinerary tested positive for the omicron variant of the coronavirus.
All passengers age 12 and older were required to be fully vaccinated and to test negative to board the cruise which departed from Miami on Dec. 11. Children ineligible for the vaccine were required to test negative, too.
"We were notified by the CDC that a guest on board our (December) 4th cruise tested positive and it was identified as omicron," Lyan Sierra-Caro, spokesperson for Royal Caribbean, told USA TODAY late Saturday. "They (CDC) asked us to notify guests on the sailing, the one that ended today, and the current one."
On the most recently concluded sailing, which disembarked on Saturday, 44 people out of 6,074 passengers and crew members on board Symphony of the Seas tested positive for COVID-19 – .72% of the community present on the ship.
Norwegian Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean: Update onboard mask requirement as omicron spreads
"They were found as a result of immediately identifying close contacts after a guest tested positive," Sierra-Caro said, noting each person was quarantined quickly. "Everyone who tested positive is asymptomatic, and we continually monitored their health. Six guests were disembarked earlier in the cruise and transported home. The remaining guests received assistance today upon our arrival."
Future cruises have not been impacted, according to Sierra-Caro.
'What a mess we are all in': Travelers scrap plans to visit New York City as omicron shutters performances
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Cruise ship passengers test positive for COVID on Royal Caribbean
Source: Read Full Article
