Two young passengers from the Royal Caribbean Cruise tested positive for COVID. Both passengers were younger than 16 and traveling in the same group. Both passengers with their companions left the Adventures of the Sea on Thursday. Royal Caribbean arranged a private flight for them to return to Florida.
The incident happened near the end of a seven-night sailing. The Adventure of the Seas left Nassau on Saturday with around 1,000 passengers on board. The cruise stopped at Royal Caribbean’s private island in Bahamas and Cozumel.
Royal Caribbean requires passengers 16 and up to be fully vaccinated. This is a reality check for the cruise industry. This could serve as a reminder that even the latest COVID protocols are not 100% effective in preventing the virus from going on board.
Also, this isn’t the only time the cruise line had to deal with COVID-positive individuals on their ship. A Royal Caribbean cruise about to depart from Florida in early July was also postponed after eight crew members tested positive for COVID when they arrived in the US. The eight crew members weren’t fully vaccinated when the incident happened.
Complicated Return to Sailing
Cruising was paused in the US in March 2020. Though the CDC’s no sail order was eventually replaced by a conditional sailing order, the initial conditions were impossible to meet for the cruise industry.
This time around, the CDC now allows cruises to sail by meeting the 95% vaccination threshold for both passengers and crew. If not, cruises will need to conduct simulated voyages with non-paying passengers to test out the COVID protocols.
For the Royal Caribbean cruise that had two COVID-positive passengers, 92% of people on board were fully vaccinated. The other 8 percent were individuals younger than 16.
The passengers tested positive on Wednesday during a regular end-of-trip test. They were immediately quarantined. One was showing mild symptoms while the other was asymptomatic. The close contacts including the two passengers’ immediate group were also identified and all tested negative.
