Forty-four people sailing aboard Royal Caribbean's Symphony of the Seas tested COVID-positive during a seven-day, round-trip Eastern Caribbean cruise that departed Miami on December 11 and disembarked yesterday.
That number equates to .72 percent of the ship's total community of 6,074 passengers and crew members, the rest of whom were advised to visit a certified testing center within three to five days of disembarking on Saturday.
The cruise line also notified passengers of the December 11-18 voyage, along with those who'd sailed on two additional Symphony of the Seas itineraries, that a guest who'd sailed aboard one of the ship's earlier departures had since tested positive for the Omicron variant.
"We were notified by the CDC that a guest onboard our (December) 4th cruise tested positive and it was identified as Omicron," Royal Caribbean spokesperson Lyan Sierra-Caro told USA Today late on Saturday. "They (CDC) asked us to notify guests on the sailing, the one that ended today, and the current one."
Per Royal Caribbean's current requirements, all passengers 12 and over had been fully vaccinated and tested COVID-negative before being allowed to board the December 11 cruise. Children under the age of 12 who are still ineligible for the vaccine were also required to test negative prior to embarkation.
The cruise line informed passengers of Symphony of the Seas' three most recent sailings of its findings in an email, explaining what had actually occurred.
"This guest did not report symptoms to our onboard medical teams as outlined in our health protocols," Royal Caribbean wrote, per a copy of the email obtained by USA Today. "Their post-cruise test results were subsequently confirmed as the Omicron variant."
In its email, the cruise line said that the 44 positive cases discovered on the December 11th sailing were "unrelated to the Omicron case from the guest who sailed on December 4th".
"They were found as a result of immediately identifying close contacts after a guest tested positive," Sierra-Caro said, noting each of the individuals was quickly quarantined upon discovery of their COVID-19 status. "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."
Sierra-Caro said that these developments have not impacted any upcoming Symphony of the Seas cruises.
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