CDC Director says COVID cases on cruises have soared after her agency warned against cruise holidays
Cruise ships have seen a 30-fold increase in COVID cases over the past two weeks, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky has announced, with nearly 100 vessels carrying passengers in US waters currently under investigation.
Speaking at the senate health hearing Tuesday, the CDC head said that the increase can be attributed to the highly contagious – and more mild – Omicron variant.
‘Just over the last two weeks with Omicron, we’ve seen a 30 fold increase in cases on ships,’ Walensky, 52, said During the 4-hour meeting, where the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions addressed the surging cases.
Cruise ships have seen a 30-fold increase in COVID cases over the past two weeks, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky has announced, with nearly 100 vessels carrying passengers in US waters currently under investigation
According to Walensky, who addressed the spread along with the White House’s Dr. Anthony Fauci, ships operating in US waters reported approximately 5,000 cases to the CDC from December 15 through December 29 – a 3000 percent increase
The marked increase in cases comes after the agency warned against cruise ship travel on December 30 regardless of passengers’ vaccination status, and nearly two years after the pandemic shut down the industry, with passengers and crew members stuck at sea for weeks as ports turned away the virus-hit vessels.
In the first two weeks of December, 162 cases aboard cruise-liners were reported to the agency. However, as cases surged in the second half of the month due to holiday travel and the new variant, cruise lines reported a concerning increase in outbreaks.
According to Walensky, who addressed the spread along with the White House’s Dr. Anthony Fauci, ships operating in US waters reported approximately 5,000 cases to the CDC from December 15 through December 29 – a 3000 percent increase.
The Norwegian Pearl cruise ship is seen docked at Port Miami on January 5, after Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd cancelled sailings amid rising fears of Omicron-related infections
The Norwegian Gateway cruise ship moored at Port Miami on January 7 following Norwegian’s announcement that it had canceled eight of its cruise ships’ planned trips amid surge in cases
As a result, thousands of passengers found themselves stranded at sea on ships forbidden to dock at foreign ports due to the positive cases, or embroiled in lengthy, onboard quarantines of up to two weeks before being allowed to return home.
Meanwhile, dozens of routes have been outright cancelled, with some ports in the Caribbean and South America still turning away ships making daily visits.
‘It wasn’t the cruise we signed up for,’ Palo Alto retiree Janet Silver Ghent told The Guardian Wednesday, after being stuck onboard a South America cruise for eight days when ports in Chile and Argentina refused to let passengers disembark because of positive tests.
The CDC issued a travel warning December 30 advising the public to avoid cruise ship travel even if vaccinated, citing the stark increase in infection numbers on cruise ships during the latter half of the month.
Due to the influx of cases, thousands of passengers found themselves stranded at sea on ships forbidden to dock at foreign ports due to the positive cases, or embroiled in lengthy, onboard quarantines of up to two weeks before being allowed to return home
Cruise liners sit anchored off the Port of Miami on January 7 after their voyages were canceled
Carnival’s Queen Mary cruise ship sits docked at at Brooklyn Cruise Terminal on December 20. Just over a wek later, the CDC would warn vacationers to not embark on cruise trips
The agency has since not offered an updated count of cases on cruise ships.
The influx in cases threatens to put a damper on the cruise industry’s long-planned comeback, which started six months ago when companies resumed operations after closing their doors for more than a year due to the pandemic.
With that said, the situation this time around, while concerning, seems much less dire, as there have been no reports thus far of infected passengers or crew members suffering from serious illness or death in the recent surge, a likely result of the more mild nature of the heavily mutated Omicron variant.
What’s more, the majority of cruise lines now require passengers to be fully vaccinated and tested for COVID before embarking, likely limiting the intensity of any outbreaks.
‘Our case count has spiked, but the level of severity is significantly milder,’ said Calvin Johnson, the chief medical officer of the world’s second largest cruise-liner, Royal Caribbean, in a statement last month.
The Norwegian Pearl cruise ship sails to PortMiami, Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2022, in Miami. The ship left on Monday on an 11-day trip to the Panama Canal, but it had to return after several crew and staff tested positive for COVID
At the time, the company reported that after cruising restarted in the US in June of last year, only 1,745 of its 1.1 million customers tested positive for COVID – a rate of 0.162 percent. Of those passengers, Johnson said, only 41 needed hospitalization.
With that said, the sudden rash of positive cases is still causing problems for cruise operators and passengers.
According to Florida maritime attorney James Walker, thousands of cruise ship crew members are currently infected with the virus, with many quarantining out at sea on a fleet of ships that are now out of service due to COVID cases.
‘Given the number of crew members who are ill, there are significant staffing problems,’ Walker told The Guardian Tuesday. ‘For the people who pay to go on a cruise, the service isn’t there.’
The Royal Caribbean vessel ‘Spectrum of the Seas’ is berthed at Kai Tak Cruise Terminal in Hong Kong, China, on January 5. The ship was ordered back to Hong Kong earlier than scheduled after nine people on board were found to be infected by the Omicron variant
Passengers stand stuck quarantining in their cabins on the the Royal Caribbean vessel ordered to stay docked in Hong Kong on January 5 after the cases were detected
However, despite these staffing issues and the CDC’s stern warning last month, statistics offered by one of the biggest cruise ports in the world seem to suggest that the industry is bouncing back six months after restarting operations.
‘We’re seeing a million dollar increase month over month for the first three months of the year,’ Port Canaveral CFO Bill Poole announced during aport commission meeting on Wednesday, citing soaring revenue numbers seen by the popular Florida cruise destination, which had seen its numbers wane during the pandemic.
The exec revealed that revenues driven by cruises at the port during the month of December topped more than $9.5 million to push its total haul for the first three months the new fiscal year to more than $25.5 million, with cruise and parking revenue from October-December in particular nearing $19 million.
The sudden rash of cases is still causing problems for cruise operators and passengers, with many forced to quarantine out at sea
Spurred by a busy holiday season, the port has been swamped in recent weeks, its CEO added, hosting multiple ships daily at each of the port’s six terminals, with two more slated in January.
‘It’s coming back. It’s coming back strongly,’ said Port CEO Capt. John Murray.
Poole added that since the industry’s restart, passenger counts have steadily grown each month, from 94,000 in August up to more than 283,000 in December.
‘Since the resumption of cruises, we’ve had almost a million passengers that have come through our terminals.’ Poole said.
Murray, meanwhile, agreed with his colleague.
‘Through the holidays, we were very strong,’ Murray said. ‘The average for all of the brands together through the holidays was about 70 percent.’
As of January, however, the port’s budget model counts on 75 percent capacity to be profitable, meaning revenue could take a hit if there are fewer passengers in the coming months.
‘Bookings are normally down this time of year,’ Murray said. ‘Now we’ve got omicron on top, so they’ve had some cancellations. It’s hard to tell what’s normal seasonal downtrend vs. what is COVID-related, but all of the lines are continuing to operate except the NCL standing down for two weeks.’
With that said, despite the surge of cases seen last month and the CDC’s subsequent warning, many holiday passengers already aboard ships for planned vacations when confronted with omicron and forced to quarantine for weeks on these cruises have opted to try and make the best of a precarious situation.
