Covid-19: 60 cruise ships in the sights of US health authorities

More than 60 cruise ships are the subject of investigations by the American health authorities after the appearance of cases of Covid-19 on board, can we read Sunday on the site of the CDC, main public health agency in the States- United. These 60 vessels have reached the “threshold” set by the “Centers for Disease Control and Prevention” to merit such an investigation.

According to the “Washington Post” daily, several ships have been refused stopovers in Caribbean ports. The “Carnival Freedom” was therefore not allowed to moor on the Dutch island of Bonaire.

“We sail aboard a Petri dish,” the container used in laboratories for growing bacteria, Ashley Peterson, a 34-year-old Carnival Freedom passenger, told the Washington Post. “I feel like I spent last week at a super-propagating event.”

In a statement, Carnival Cruises confirmed that a “small number on board had been isolated due to a positive Covid test”. “If it becomes necessary to cancel a stopover, we will do our best to find an alternative destination.” The “Carnival Freedom” arrived in Miami on Sunday morning, disembarked all of its passengers, and “will depart for its next trip as scheduled,” the company said.

On Wednesday, another company, Royal Caribbean International, said fifty-five people had tested positive for Covid-19 on board one of its ships that left Florida on December 18. Those infected include passengers and crew, although 95% of those on board are vaccinated against the coronavirus.

“Nervousness”

The boat was not allowed to stop in Curaçao and Aruba, in the Netherlands Antilles. He was to stay at sea until he returned to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., On Sunday. “Even though we can’t get off, we all have our friends with us,” comments Brij Patel, a 45-year-old cruise line.

It was the second outbreak of coronavirus to be identified on a Royal Caribbean boat in less than a week. Brenda Hammer, a 69-year-old tourist having to board one of the company’s other ships, the “Odyssey of the Seas”, confided her “nervousness”: “I’m not sure I want to go anymore”, she says.

The coronavirus had caused the suspension of cruise activities for more than a year. They resumed in June with a series of measures to try to keep the virus at bay, such as the compulsory vaccine for employees and passengers over 12 years old for Royal Caribbean for example. But the Omicron variant presents a new challenge.

The number of Covid-19 cases in the United States continues to increase, with nearly 190,000 new cases daily over the last seven days on average. In February 2020, the quarantine imposed in a Japanese port on the passengers of a cruise ship, the “Diamond Princess”, was one of the key episodes of the start of the pandemic.