Six Royal Caribbean passengers, including four who are fully vaccinated, test positive for COVID-19 onboard cruise ship in the Bahamas
Six passengers who sailed on a Royal Caribbean ship tested positive for COVID-19 near the end of their cruise and were immediately quarantined, the company said Friday.
The passengers - four adults and two minors - were on the Adventure of the Seas ship for a 7-day trip that left the Bahamas last Saturday and returned on Friday, said Royal Caribbean spokeswoman Lyan Sierra-Caro.
They were tested on Thursday while the ship was at sea.
The adults were all vaccinated against COVID-19, Sierra-Caro said, and one has mild symptoms of the virus while the other three do not. They were not traveling together.
Six guests on the Adventure of the Seas cruise ship tested positive for COVID. One had mild symptoms; four out of the rest were vaccinated and not traveling together, while two others were unvaccinated minors (file photo)
The two minors -- who were in the same group but not traveling with any of the four adults who tested positive -- were not vaccinated and were not showing symptoms, the spokeswoman said.
All six are American citizens, Sierra-Cano said. They were quarantined and people traveling with them were traced and tested negative, she said.
Sierra-Cano said the six passengers would fly back to the U.S. on private transportation at Royal Caribbean's expense and won't need to quarantine in the Bahamas.
The ship was in Freeport, Bahamas, on Friday, where other passengers were free to go on shore, and the cruise will end Saturday in Nassau as scheduled.
Sierra-Cano said the company would tell other passengers about the infections once they were all back on board Friday.
The cruise set sail from Nassau in the Bahamas on July 24 and required all travelers aged 16 or older to be fully vaccinated and test negative before boarding (file photo)
The Adventure of the Seas cruise, which set sail from Nassau in the Bahamas on July 24, required all travelers aged 16 or older to be fully vaccinated and test negative before boarding. Those ineligible for the vaccine had to show a negative test result to travel including children.
All the crew are fully vaccinated, according to the company.
Royal Caribbean Group said on Friday that from now on, only passengers with a negative COVID-19 test will be let aboard.
The rule will apply to all guests departing on cruises that are five nights or longer, irrespective of their vaccine status, the company said.
Cruise operators, one of the sectors hit hardest by the pandemic, have been slowly restarting operations after more than a year of being docked at ports.
The Diamond Princess was locked down for more than two weeks off the coast of Japan in February 2020, with 700 passengers confined to their rooms. 14 passengers died from COVID
One cluster on the Diamond Princess at the start of the pandemic led to the ship being quarantined off the coast of Japan for weeks.
A total of 712 of the ship's 3,711 passengers and crew were found to be infected during the lockdown, sparking severe criticism of how Japanese authorities had handled the case. 14 passengers died.
Passengers were confined to their cabins on board the ship in what scientists described as an ideal breeding ground for the virus, with tourists also voicing concerns about the conditions on board.
Several countries eventually lost patience with Japan and airlifted their citizens home.