The Celebrity Millennium, a Royal Caribbean cruise ship. – Royal Caribbean
Sixteen months after the Diamond Princess nightmare, the industry is hoping to get its head out of the water. But Thursday, Royal Caribbean announced that two people have tested positive for Covid-19 aboard the Celebrity Millennium, one of the first cruise ships to sail in North America since the start of the pandemic, despite “a crew and passengers vaccinated”.
“The individuals are asymptomatic, currently in isolation and monitored by our medical team,” said the company, which ensures that it conducts a contact tracing operation and whose ship left Sint Maarten, the Dutch part of the Caribbean island of Saint Martin, June 5.
The two people tested positive during the “compulsory end-of-cruise test”, explains Royal Caribbean, which claims that passengers had to present proof of vaccination as well as a negative Covid-19 screening of less than 72 hours before boarding.
1250 people on board
The company claims to have followed complete protocols in line with its partner destinations and “going beyond” the directives of the main American public health agency, “to protect the health and safety of (its) passengers”, numbering 600 and accompanied. by 650 crew members, according to New York Times.
The Centers for the Prevention and Fight against Diseases (CDC) had issued in early May new rules to allow cruise passengers to go back to sea under strict conditions: that 95% of people on cruise ships, passengers and employees, be vaccinated. Departing from Sint Maarten, the Celebrity Millennium was to complete a seven-day journey through Barbados, Aruba and Curaçao.