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Passengers will be required to have a negative test before they board ships, said CEO Michael Bayley in a Facebook post. Twenty-seven people tested positive for Covid-19 aboard the Carnival Vista cruise ship, which docked in Belize on Wednesday, according to the Belize Tourism Board. The CDC recommends people who go on cruises wear a mask in shared spaces and get tested one to three days before their trip and three to five days after, regardless of vaccination status. Passengers who are not fully vaccinated should also self-quarantine for at least seven days after their cruise ends, according to the CDC's website. During the current budget year, there will be a total of 66 cruise ship sailings with passengers in a period stretching from July 31 through Sept. 29, according to Port Canaveral Chief Executive Officer John Murray. Among them, there were cases involving 26 crew members and one passenger on the Carnival Vista on a recent cruise that sailed from Galveston, Texas.
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That's an onerous process, and difficult to organize and pull off, especially in the middle of a passenger's vacation. Norwegian Cruise Line sued Florida's top health official in July, requesting a preliminary injunction to let the company implement its vaccine mandate for all passengers and crew. District Judge Kathleen Williams writing that Norwegian "demonstrated that public health will be jeopardized if it is required to suspend its vaccination requirement."
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So far, Carnival and other cruise lines have dealt with the cases without disrupting their ship schedules. "We look forward to a future when more people are vaccinated and the numbers are lower, perhaps we're over the delta variant," Ostrosky says. Several cruise companies, including Disney Cruise Line and Norwegian Cruise Line, are cracking down on vaccine requirements.
CDC warns older adults, travelers in COVID high-risk groups not to take cruises, even if they're vaccinated
Two of the passengers were children who did not have the COVID-19 vaccine, and the third was a vaccinated parent of one of the children, according to Port Canaveral officials. "Even with the vast majority of our onboard population highly vaccinated we are seeing more covid positive cases with vaccinated guests," Bayley said, in the post. "The Delta variant is now spreading rapidly with over 92,000 new infections yesterday alone in the USA and in Florida one of the industry's major markets there were over 17,000 cases yesterday." As of Saturday, all guests will be required to show proof of a negative Covid test, regardless of their vaccination status, Carnival said. “[P]arents of unvaccinated children under 12 years of age say that there is ‘nothing for the kids to do at all, besides the pool’ and that kids couldn’t get off the ship when it visited ports,” Smith wrote on Aug. 19.
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In the Mardi Gras incident, three Carnival Cruise Line passengers had COVID-19 on the inaugural sailing of the ship from Port Canaveral on July 31. Some of the cruise companies are fighting another battle, too — against state governments that have passed laws or executive orders aimed at stopping vaccine mandates. On Wednesday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott passed an executive order banning any state or local mandates requiring Covid vaccination. In Florida, home to multiple popular cruise departure ports, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an executive order in May prohibiting vaccine passports statewide.
While I believe the cruise industry will return to normal at some point, now doesn’t appear to be that time. And even with safety measures in place, cruises come with residual risks that can't be ignored, like unavoidable close quarters and potential for breakthrough infections. Travel of any kind is currently a very high-risk activity, explains Dr. Luis Ostrosky, division chief for infectious diseases at UT Health, part of the University of Texas, Houston. "And we don't have the level of vaccination we need to assure that people are going to survive if they happen to get [Covid]."
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You can check the CDC's website for a ship's Covid status before planning or boarding a cruise. A number of cruise lines have strengthened COVID-19 regulations on U.S. sailings as the delta variant continues to spread. Princess Cruises, Holland America Line and Carnival Cruise Line added mask requirements in select spaces and testing requirements for all passengers, regardless of vaccination status, earlier this month. The discovery was among a series of positive COVID-19 tests among passengers and crew of ships operated by Carnival and other cruise lines in recent weeks.
Cruises are 'a recipe for transmission'
COVID-19 outbreaks have been reported on cruise ships in recent months, despite various testing and vaccination requirements among cruise lines. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has updated its guidance for travelers who are at increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19 to recommend they avoid cruise ships, regardless of vaccination status. Every little action on cruise ships will be under a microscope in the weeks and months ahead. The fact that they don’t pay U.S. taxes will encourage health authorities in this country to apply very stringent rules on cruise ships. Poole noted that Port Canaveral-based cruise ships historically have sailed at 110% to 115% of their double-occupancy capacities, with three or more people occupying many cabins, typically parents and their children. "We have managed the situation utilizing stringent health protocols which included placing those who tested positive in isolation and close contacts in quarantine."
Even on a good day outside of the pandemic, cruises are challenging environments from an infection-control standpoint, Ostrosky says. "Each guest and their immediate travel parties are disembarking in Freeport, The Bahamas today, and separately traveling home via private transportation," the cruise operator said. Will Ashworth has written about investments full-time since 2008. Publications where he’s appeared include InvestorPlace, The Motley Fool Canada, Investopedia, Kiplinger, and several others in both the U.S. and Canada. He particularly enjoys creating model portfolios that stand the test of time.
At the time of this writing Will Ashworth did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. “[C]ome the end of July, the cruise operator’s new ship, Mardi Gras, will sail from Port Canaveral on a seven-day Caribbean cruise,” I wrote on June 28. After hearing the presentation, Port Authority Chairman Wayne Justice noted that there is excitement about the return of cruising at the port — which is expected to lead to a return to profits in the coming budget year. He is using estimates of passenger counts that are much lower than the port has historically seen. Poole said he was conservative in his projections for port revenue from cruise operations.
Carnival added that "our protocols are designed to manage and mitigate COVID amongst guests and crew." That's why it's common to see outbreaks of other contagious respiratory or gastrointestinal viruses, like norovirus, aboard cruises. Shares are up nearly 3% since the start of the year, bringing the company's market value to $19.57 billion. Let’s assume for a second that Carnival was able to ensure that no one on its ships could be infected with Covid-19. But, of course, it’s impossible to make this guarantee but play along.
The cruise required vaccination, and approximately 96% of all 4,336 passengers and crew were reportedly vaccinated, but nobody was required to present a negative Covid test before boarding. After four days on the water, the ship reported a 27-person Covid outbreak spanning both passengers and crew. One of the passengers, the 77-year-old, died 10 days later — the first such reported death since cruises restarted in the United States in June. In July, four vaccinated adults and two unvaccinated children tested positive for COVID-19 on a Royal Caribbean ship that had required passengers 16 and older to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and all passengers to receive a negative test before boarding. Last week, 27 people – 26 of whom were crew members – tested positive for COVID-19 on Carnival Cruise Line's Carnival Vista ship. More than 99% of crew members were vaccinated on the ship and 96.5% of passengers were vaccinated, according to the Belize Tourism Board.
The tests came back as part of routine, end-of-cruise testing, which was offered as a courtesy by the cruise line, since most passengers need to show proof of a negative test in order to return home. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's leading expert on infectious diseases, recently said that he thinks the country will have control over Covid and regain a sense of normalcy by spring 2022. But even then, travel and cruises will likely be high-risk activities.
The new guidance applies to older adults, people with certain medical conditions and pregnant and recently pregnant people. Prior to Friday’s announcement, the agency recommended that only people who were not fully vaccinated against COVID-19 avoid cruise ships. For example, six passengers on a recent Royal Caribbean International Adventure of the Seas cruise sailing from Nassau, the Bahamas, tested positive for COVID-19. Carnival asks that its passengers wear masks in certain indoor areas. Also, beginning Aug. 14, all vaccinated passengers, in addition to unvaccinated passengers, needed to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test prior to embarkation, as the cruise line modified its protocols "to adapt to the changing public health situation." If your heart is set on going on a cruise before then, you should get vaccinated when you're eligible, Malani says.
The six guests were immediately quarantined and their close contacts were identified and tested. Three of the four fully-vaccinated passengers had no symptoms and the fourth passenger had mild symptoms, Royal Caribbean said in a statement. The two unvaccinated guests are minors traveling in the same party and are asymptomatic. "Carnival is managing a small number of positive COVID cases on Carnival Vista sailing out of Galveston. This despite all of our crew and almost all of our guests being vaccinated," a spokesperson for Carnival Cruises said in a statement. For example, he is projecting that ships sailing from Port Canaveral will operate at 50% of their double-occupancy capacity from October through December 2021.
CDC protocol says at least 95% of passengers and crew must show proof of vaccination to board a cruise ship. The port said it lost an estimated $113.6 million in cruise ship and cruise-related parking revenue during the shutdown, which began in March 2020. Pre-pandemic, about 80% of the port's revenue came from various fees it charged cruise ships and from cruise passenger parking. The appearance of COVID-19 on the Mardi Gras as cruising returned to Port Canaveral is a sign of just how precarious the restart of cruising can be. Due to the rapidly spreading delta coronavirus variant, the cruise line will be expanding its test procedures for cruises departing from the U.S. that are five nights or longer.
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