Despite being fully vaccinated, 55 crew members and passengers on Royal Caribbean’s Odyssey of the Seas ship have contracted COVID-19, prompting two island nations to deny the ship entry, The Miami Herald reported.
The ship had been at CocoCay, Royal Caribbean’s private island in the Bahamas, and had been scheduled to stop at Curacao and Aruba before returning to South Florida, but Curacao and Aruba denied the ship entry, the Herald reported.
“The decision was made together with the islands out of an abundance of caution due to the current trend of COVID-19 cases in the destinations’ communities as well as crew and guests testing positive on board,” Royal Caribbean said in a statement to The Washington Post.
The ship will now stay at sea until its previously-scheduled return to South Florida on Dec. 26, WTVJ reported.
Royal Caribbean told WPLG that all 55 people who tested positive are fully vaccinated and either have mild symptoms or are asymptomatic. The cruise line did not say how many infected are passengers and how many are crew members.
The outbreak on Odyssey comes days after 48 people on Royal Caribbean’s Symphony of the Seas tested positive for COVID-19 when the cruise docked in Miami, CNN reported. That ship had more than 6,000 passengers and crew on the week-long cruise.
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