There has been an outbreak of the coronavirus on Ruby Princess. The ship docked in San Francisco on March 28th. Princess announced the cases once the ship arrived in California. One of the reasons why this is such a notable outbreak is because the ship was billed as being “fully vaccinated.” This event has sparked concern about the cruise industry and its safety standards, particularly with newly eased warnings from the CDC over cruise travel.
The timeline of the outbreak begins sometime at the start of this particular Ruby Princess itinerary. Guests boarded the ship on March 13th for a 15-day trip to the Panama Canal. Upon boarding, all guests needed to present proof of vaccination against COVID-19 in addition to a negative test. With this methodology in place, Princess assumed that the fully vaccinated voyage would be safe from COVID.
However, at some point during the voyage, guests began to test positive for the virus. According to the cruise line, there were no serious symptoms; all who were infected exhibited either mild symptoms or none at all. They also spoke about their quarantine protocol, stating that anyone who tested positive was “isolated and quarantined while monitored and cared for by our shipboard medical team.
While these guests were quarantined, the ship set sail for San Francisco to dock and disembark its passengers. Those who tested positive were then required to arrange their own transportation away from the ship for further quarantine if determined necessary. Some may go to local hotels to complete their quarantine period.
Princess has yet to say exactly how many guests contracted COVID. They also haven’t yet mentioned when or where these infections occurred. That means that we can only really guess how or why this outbreak happened. It could have occurred during a shore excursion, or it could just be that cases slipped by the tests required to board. What is concerning, though, is that outbreaks like this are still happening on fully vaccinated cruises. Luckily, it seems that this one wasn’t too severe thanks to the safety measures in place.
This outbreak comes amid two factors that could potentially be at odds with one another in the cruise industry: the lessened CDC warning for cruises and the growing Omicron BA.2 variant. The CDC now considers taking a cruise as a “moderate” health risk, far lower than their previous level 4 warning during the height of the Omicron wave. Still, BA.2 is generally considered 30% more transmissible than the original Omicron, causing many to grow more wary of travel than before.
It remains to be seen if this outbreak or the prevalence of the BA.2 variant will cause the CDC to impose any restrictions on the cruise industry. Many facts are still unclear about the cases on Ruby Princess, so we will likely need to wait for more information to see if anything changes. And for now, Princess hasn’t announced any changes to their health and safety protocols regarding COVID.
