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Last week, the CDC revealed the number of Covid cases reported on cruise ships between June 26 and October 21. Until now, the only information available for cases on board was a color chart by cruise ship that does not include numbers.
Drum roll: The number is 1359 laboratory-confirmed Covid cases among crew and passengers. CLIA (Cruise Lines International Association) estimates that 600,000 passengers cruised during that time frame. 49 of those cases required hospitalization, 38 cases required medical evacuation, and one passenger died. These numbers only include passengers from ships departing from U.S. ports. Over 95% of passengers were fully vaccinated.
The CDC did not disclose which ships had the outbreaks. However, Royal Caribbean disclosed that 150 passengers have tested positive on its ships that are operating around the world. That is a positivity rate of .03%.
What does this mean?
Some will interpret this data to mean that cruising is not safe. Despite all of the protocols (vaccines, pre-board testing, masking), Covid still managed to sneak on board.
However, I don’t think it’s realistic to get to zero cases anywhere. Any time you leave your house, even if you’re vaccinated and masked, there is a risk.
Cruise lines managed to resume operations without a large-scale breakout on any single ship and without overwhelming the on-board medical centers. That’s a significant accomplishment.
The CDC’s Conditional Sailing Order (CSO) expires on January 15, 2022. At that point, the protocols become voluntary. I think the cruise lines would be foolish to ease up on the protocols yet. As much as everyone wants to go back to “normal” cruising, another significant outbreak on any one ship would be devastating to the cruising industry.
I predict (and hope) that vaccines and pre-board testing are still required on cruises in the upcoming months. I’m looking forward to getting back on board for a spring break cruise.
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Author: Nancy
Nancy lives near Dallas, Texas, with her husband and three kids. Her favorite vacations include the beach, cruising and everything Disney.
Or to put it in more concrete numbers… one in 441. I’d be curious to know who is testing positive. Is it usually in clusters, as in a family in the same cabin all get it? If so that would be amazing. That would mean the protocols put in place are very effective at preventing the spread to other shipmates.
Still, I can’t get past the “what ifs” yet to travel internationally. If you test positive before returning, you’re in for a long, miserable quarantine. Anyone know how this works with cruise ships? I assume you get quarantined to your room but what happens when the ship docks in other countries and/or returns to the US?
@projectx Because the positive cases include crew members and crew members are not included in the 600k number, the 1 in 441 should be lower. Not sure by how much, but on my Disney Cruise the crew to passenger ratio was about 1:1 due to the low numbers. From what I’ve read on cruise forums, if you test positive on a cruise ship you are quarantined in your cabin and then you stay on the ship until returning to the US. The risk is still there, and I agree that quarantining would suck. That’s why I won’t cruise without a balcony cabin anymore. I need the fresh air.
The CLIA 600,000 passengers – were only on ships that sailed through US waters?
@Neil That number is from ships that sailed from US ports. A few cruise lines home-ported in The Bahamas/Cozumel this summer, so it wouldn’t include those.