The first cruise ship to set sail in the Caribbean since the start of the pandemic in March has reported a coronavirus case onboard just five days into its voyage.
A passenger aboard SeaDream Yacht Club’s SeaDream I tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday as the ship was anchored off the coast of St Vincent’s and the Grenadines, travel writer Gene Sloan reported.
Sloan, who is among the 53 passengers onboard the Norwegian cruise ship that set sail from Barbados on Saturday, has been documenting the seven-day trip on The Points Guy travel blog.
All passengers have been forced to quarantine in their cabins after the ship’s captain Torbjorn Lund informed them of the case around noon, Sloan said.
During the early days of the pandemic, cruise ships were viewed as floating petri dishes and had become the source of major outbreaks at sea earlier this year.
A passenger aboard SeaDream Yacht Club’s SeaDream I tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, five days into its first voyage since March
All 53 passengers are now quarantined as the vessel makes its way back to its point of departure in Barbados
The health scare comes amid what Sloan described as a ‘watershed moment’ for the cruise industry which had taken a hit after being forced to suspend operations due to the outbreaks.
Captain Lund said the infected passenger had tested positive on a ‘preliminary’ basis, but had reported feeling ill prior to taking the test.
As a result, the ship was working under the assumption that it had more infected passengers onboard and would immediately return to its point of departure in Bridgetown.
Meanwhile, the remaining passengers and 66 crew members underwent tests, all of which came back negative by Wednesday evening, Sloan said.
The passengers and crew members are expected to be tested again by health authorities upon their return to the island.
The SeaDream I cruise was the first of 22 sailings that the cruise line planned in the Caribbean through the spring and was scheduled to make stops at islands in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Grenada.
None of the passengers visited any island towns during the stops nor did they come in contact with locals on the islands, Sloane said.
Travel writer Gene Sloan is among the 53 passengers onboard the Norwegian cruise ship that set sail from Barbados on Saturday and has been documenting his trip. Pictured: Crew members wearing masks onboard
Passengers had to undergo a ‘gauntlet’ of COVID-19 testing for the trip and were required to test negative three times before and during the journey. The ship also kept social distancing guidelines in place at its pools, bars (pictured) and deck-top lounge area
All travelers were also required to undergo a ‘gauntlet’ of COVID-19 testing for the trip that involved three separate tests.
They were required to produce negative results in a test taken days before boarding, on the day of departure, and three days after setting sail.
The strict testing system intended to create a ‘COVID-free bubble’ on the ship to ensure the odds of an outbreak were extremely low.
Because of this, passengers were initially not required to wear masks on board.
However, those rules were later overturned by the ship’s activity director on Monday evening, Sloan said.
The ship had also kept social distancing guidelines in place at its pools, bars and deck-top lounge area.
Aside from the restrictions, Sloan in an earlier blog post had described the experience as ‘surprisingly normal.’
Of the 53 passengers, 37 are American and the remaining 16 from the UK, Austria, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Germany.
The SeaDream I cruise is the first of 22 sailings that the cruise line planned in the region through the spring and was expected to make stops at islands in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Grenada
The potential outbreak would mark another blow for cruise ship industry which was among the worst hit by after several coronavirus outbreaks were reported across multiple liners earlier this year, some of which were required to keep their passengers quarantined aboard for weeks.
Perhaps the most famous case is that of the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which was quarantined in Japan from February 5 to February 19.
One sick passenger eventually led to nearly 700 infections and seven deaths from COVID-19.
The rapid spread of the virus prompted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to impose a no-sail order on US cruises in mid March for 30 days.
The ban was finally lifted late last month, with the agency issuing new guidance to help companies resume operations over the next several months.
It did not mean the CDC was allowing cruises in the US to resume as the country faces a third wave of infections.
It would instead serve as framework that will allow the cruise industry to restart operations in phases along with an implementation of safety measures.