Passengers on Mediterranean cruise test positive for covid-19

Two passengers tested positive for the coronavirus during routine checks aboard a Mediterranean cruise this week, MSC Cruises said.

The passengers, who were asymptomatic, got their positive test results on Monday, according to MSC Cruises spokesman Luca Biondolillo. They were not travelling together on the MSC Seaside. Biondolillo said the individuals and their travelling groups, as well as close contacts, were immediately isolated, and no one aside from the original two passengers tested positive.

According to the Times of Malta, the vessel was not allowed to make a regular call-in to Malta’s Valletta cruise port Monday. Instead, Biondolillo said, the ship made a “technical call” — where passengers don’t disembark — and then resumed its regular schedule with a stop in Sicily.

Both passengers and their parties left the ship in Siracusa, on the island of Sicily, and were taken home “by protected MSC Cruises transport” Tuesday, the cruise company said. The ship continued its normal schedule after the Siracusa stop.

“All of this took place in line with the protocol and in coordination with the local health authorities,” Biondolillo said in an email Wednesday.

Passengers on MSC ships are not required to be vaccinated, but they have to undergo several tests: two to three days before leaving for a cruise, just before getting on the ship and midway through the cruise, Biondolillo said.

“If anything, this is another demonstration that the protocol works,” he said.

The company started sailing in the Mediterranean in August 2020 and has seen “a handful such cases” since, Biondolillo said, adding that “many thousands” of passengers have sailed safely.

Cruise ships have slowly started service again around the world, but still have not resumed in the United States since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shut the industry down last March. The agency is not requiring cruise ships to sail with vaccinated passengers but will allow those with at least 95 per cent of vaccinated crew and guests to skip test cruises meant to show how they will deal with covid-19 risks.

The first cruise from U.S. shores with paying passengers is scheduled to set sail later this month. The Celebrity Cruises ship will require everyone 16 and older to be fully vaccinated — a condition that comes into conflict with a Florida law that says businesses can’t ask for proof of vaccination status.

MSC Cruises, which is headquartered in Geneva, announced this week that it plans to start short cruises on MSC Meraviglia from Miami to the Bahamas on Aug. 2. The company recently got approval from the CDC to conduct a test cruise on that vessel.

The company said it will “welcome both vaccinated and non-vaccinated guests,” with those who are not vaccinated subject to additional testing and restrictions. Rubén Rodriguez, president of MSC Cruises USA, said in a statement that he expects the majority of passengers will be vaccinated.

“The rapid distribution of vaccines in the U.S. has been a positive step toward helping vacationers get back to travelling, and we encourage our guests to take advantage of this added layer of protection when resuming travel this summer,” he said.

CDC Warms to the Idea of July Cruising

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) may be warming to the idea of the cruise industry restarting in July from the United States, according to a report by USA Today.

"We acknowledge that cruising will never be a zero-risk activity and that the goal of the CSO's (Framework for Conditional Sailing Order) phased approach is to resume passenger operations in a way that mitigates the risk of COVID-19 transmission onboard cruise ships and across port communities," said Aimee Treffiletti, head of the Maritime Unit for CDC’s COVID-19 response within its Global Mitigation Task Force for COVID-19, a letter obtained by USA Today.

The report went on to quote a spokesperson noting that cruise lines could begin sailing in mid-July, but also citing compliance with the CSO, which cruise lines have called unworkable. 

It is expected that the CDC will soon simplify the CSO, expediting timelines to approve restart plans.

The USA Today report noted that "ships can bypass the required simulated test voyages carrying volunteers and jump to sailings with paying passengers if 98% of crew and 95% of passengers are fully vaccinated."

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Cancels All April Cruises

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings today announced an extension of its previously announced suspension of global cruise voyages as the company continues to work through its return to service plan to meet the requirements of the Framework for Conditional Sailing Order issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”).

The suspension now includes all voyages on Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises embarking through April 30, 2021.

The company will continue to work in tandem with global government and public health authorities and its Healthy Sail Panel expert advisors to take all necessary measures to protect its guests, crew and the communities visited.

Guests who are currently booked on cancelled voyages on Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises or Regent Seven Seas Cruises are asked to contact their travel advisor or the cruise line for more information.

Cruise Ships to Dock at Port of Los Angeles Without Passengers

The Port of Los Angeles is expecting cruise ships but without passengers, in the coming weeks, according to a port press release.

The visits for fuel, supplies, and services are part of the cruise lines’ operations to reestablish the ships in U.S. waters as a prerequisite to meet federal regulations in order to resume cruising in the future. 

The port said it continues to closely monitor the situation and is working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), California Department of Public Health, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health and other emergency and public health agencies. 

Princess Cruises, Holland America, and Norwegian Cruise Line cruise ships are scheduled to send ships arriving in Los Angeles this week and through the new year, periodically docking at the Los Angeles Cruise Terminal for fuel, food, supplies, and/or services. No vessels will be carrying passengers.

The Port of Los Angeles is expecting more than two dozen cruise ship calls through early February.

In addition to increased precautions to minimize community spread of and exposure to COVID-19, cruise ship safety implementations while at berth include Passenger Ship Safety Certificate (PSSC) training and Marine Evacuation System (MES) replacement.

Bahamas Paradise’s Grand Celebration Likely Getting Scrapped

Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line’s Grand Celebration is likely heading to the end of her cruise career as the ship is rumoured to have been sold for scrap and is currently sailing toward India, where the 1987-built vessel is expected to arrive in early January.

Company officials did not return a request for comment, while a separate Facebook post from the cruise operator reassuring guests they would return to service soon has since been removed.

The cruise line’s website has also been simplified recently, while its booking engine has been offline for at least three weeks.

“Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line is pleased to announce that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has lifted the no-sail order and provided new guidelines for cruises to resume sailing. Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line is now working to comply with all requirements to ensure a safe return for guests to Grand Bahama Island,” the company said, on its website, noting it will “be accepting reservations very soon.”

With the Grand Celebration presumably exiting the fleet, it leaves the company with the more modern Grand Classica under its banner, offering two-night cruises to the Bahamas from Palm Beach.

Princess cancels cruises through Dec. 15

The Diamond Princess' pool deck.

Princess Cruises is extending its suspension of nearly all cruise operations through mid-December.

Sailings in Asia, the Caribbean, California, Hawaii, Mexico, the Panama Canal, South America and Antarctica, Japan, and Tahiti and the South Pacific are paused through Dec. 15. 

Cruises in and out of Australia are paused through Oct. 31.

“We share in our guests’ disappointment in cancelling these cruises,” said Jan Swartz, Princess Cruises president. “We look forward to the days when we can return to travel and the happiness it brings to all who cruise.”

Princess will protect travel advisors’ commissions on bookings that were paid in full.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last week extended the No Sail Order for cruise ships from U.S. ports through Sept. 30. CLIA member lines had already decided last month to voluntarily suspend operations until at least Sept. 15, saying that it was “increasingly clear that more time will be needed to resolve barriers to a resumption in the United States.”

CLIA anticipates talks with CDC on return to the sea

MSC Magnifica at anchor in Queensferry Edinburgh

Days after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) extended the No Sail Order for cruise ships from U.S. ports through September, CLIA expressed confidence that it was close to starting a meaningful dialogue with the agency about resuming sailings. 

CLIA global chair Adam Goldstein said that so far, its engagement with the CDC has focused mostly on the health and repatriation of crew members who were still aboard ships in U.S. waters. 

The CDC had not thus far engaged meaningfully with CLIA and the industry about resuming service, Goldstein said, but he was encouraged that would begin, citing commentary in the No Sail Order extension that indicated “a willingness for information exchange and development of approaches beyond what we had seen from them before.”

CLIA was also encouraged that its voluntary suspension through Sept. 15 closely aligned with the CDC’s No Sail Order extension to Sept. 30.

“The fact that we’re beginning to converge makes us more optimistic that the kind of engagement we’re looking for with the CDC as our regulator will begin in the near future and will allow their experts, our experts, our operations personnel, our leaders and their leaders to have the kind of dialogue that will result in the safe and successful resumption of service,” Goldstein said. 

According to CLIA, being involved in such high-level talks with regulators in Europe has helped enable the resumption of limited cruise operations in Germany and Norway. 

“The EU has engaged with us fairly intensively through multiple rounds of discussion to work toward an EU guidance permitting national regulators to adopt appropriate regulations, which, in combination with our protocols, we believe is what put Germany and Norway in a condition to restart under the limited conditions,” Goldstein said. 

CLIA believes more European countries in the near term may also begin limited cruise operations. 

“This is a reflection of one of the expectations we’ve had for a couple months now -- that cruising would restart in kind of a sequential manner,” Goldstein said. 

CLIA’s primary focus is still on its members’ primary source market, North America, and most popular destinations: the Caribbean, Alaska, Bermuda and Mexico. Goldstein said that CLIA and the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association are in dialogue with destinations around North America “to work toward alignment” on how they can confidently open up to cruise ship visits.

“In order for the North American cruise market to regenerate, two things need to be true: The cruise industry needs approval from the CDC to resume operations in and out of the U.S., and the ports of call need to accept the ships,” Goldstein said. “This critical work will take time, but it is in everyone’s interest to come to a mutually agreeable approach.” 

In what seemed to be a response to the CDC’s citing a lack of consensus among cruise lines and the need for additional industry-led efforts regarding safely resuming passenger operations, Goldstein said that over the next weeks and months, CLIA expects to emerge with one or more policies that members will eventually sign onto in response to the pandemic.

“Our goal remains to emerge with a unified approach policy-wise across the associations that all member lines will sign up for,” he said. “I can’t tell you when that will occur or the steps that will get us there.”

Royal Caribbean and Norwegian to Partner on Health Protocols

Royal Caribbean Group and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings announced a collaboration to "develop enhanced cruise health and safety standards in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic," according to a press release.

The companies have asked Governor Mike Leavitt and Dr Scott Gottlieb to serve as co-chairs of a newly formed group of experts called the "Healthy Sail Panel."

The panel is tasked with collaboratively developing recommendations for cruise lines to advance their public health response to COVID-19, improve safety, and achieve readiness for the safe resumption of operations, according to a press release.

The expert panel has been working for nearly a month and will offer its initial recommendations by the end of August.

The cruise lines said its work will be "open source," and could be freely adopted by any company or industry that would benefit from the group's scientific and medical insights.

"This unprecedented disease requires us to develop unprecedented standards in health and safety," said Richard D. Fain, chairman and CEO of Royal Caribbean Group. "Bringing aboard these respected experts to guide us forward demonstrates our commitment to protecting our guests, our crews and the communities we visit."

"We compete for the vacationing consumer's business every day, but we never compete on health and safety standards," said Frank Del Rio, president and CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. "While the cruise industry has always had rigorous health standards, the unique challenges posed by COVID-19 provide an opportunity to raise the bar even higher."

Fain and Del Rio said they initiated the panel to assure the plans they will submit to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other regulators apply the best available public health, science and engineering insights. The work of the panel will be shared with the entire industry and regulators.

"In convening the Healthy Sail Panel, we sought the participation of a diverse group of leading experts in areas of science and public health that are directly relevant to the considerations listed by the No Sail Order," said Governor Leavitt. "We view our work as a profoundly important public health effort. The health and safety of passengers, crew, and the communities that cruise ships visit will be the principal focus of this project."

Dr Gottlieb said, "We know that the public health issues that must be addressed are complex, and in some areas, tackling them will require novel approaches. Our goal in assembling this team of leading experts was to develop best practices that can improve safety and provide a roadmap for reducing the risks of COVID-19."

The panel is co-chaired by Governor Leavitt, former Secretary of the U.S. Department Health and Human Services (HHS), and Dr Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The panel's members are globally recognized experts from various disciplines, including public health, infectious disease, biosecurity, hospitality and maritime operations.

Carnival Corporation to ‘fully co-operate’ with a congressional inquiry

Carnival Corporation to ‘fully co-operate’ with a congressional inquiry

Carnival Corporation has said it will fully co-operate with the US House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure after it opened an inquiry into the company’s handling of the coronavirus crisis.

Bloomberg reported on Friday that letters had been sent to Carnival chief executive Arnold Donald, the US Coast Guard and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asking for internal documents and correspondence relating to outbreaks onboard its ships.

The letter asked Carnival to clarify its plan for improvement in the areas of public health and passenger safety which it said: “has not been seen up to this point”.

It also said the cruise giant appeared to be “still trying to sell this cruise line fantasy and ignoring the public health threat”.

A statement from Carnival said it was reviewing the letter and would fully co-operate with the committee.

The statement said: “Our goal is the same as the committee’s goal, to protect the health, safety and well-being of our guests and crew, along with compliance and environmental protection.”

In a call with journalists on April 16, Donald refuted suggestions the cruise industry was slow to react to the outbreak of coronavirus.

And he argued that cruise was one of the best-placed sectors of travel to cope with anticipated stricter health and safety protocols in the future.

He said: “The cruise industry put a pause on the cruise before anybody else did. Before hotels or restaurants and other places of social gathering.

“Cruise ships are not the cause. Neither are they the reason for the spread.”

More than 300 passengers fall ill with suspected norovirus on Caribbean Princess

More than 300 passengers fall ill with suspected norovirus on Caribbean Princess

At least 299 passengers and 22 crew members sailing on a Princess Cruises ship are believed to be suffering from suspected norovirus.

Caribbean Princess was refused entry to Trinidad & Tobago as a precautionary measure.

The ship was on a 14-day Caribbean sailing which departed on February 2.

It is now en route back to Port Everglades, Florida, and is scheduled to arrive Thursday morning.

The ship is carrying 4,196 guests and crew in total.

All guests are being offered a 50% refund and a future cruise credit.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the ship will undergo a “super sanitation cleaning” in port on February 16.

It will then depart from Port Everglades for a round-trip Circle Caribbean cruise.

The line is also dealing with an outbreak of coronavirus onboard Diamond Princess in Japan, where 136 passengers have been diagnosed with the virus.

Meanwhile, on Monday, Saga Cruises confirmed at least 89 passengers on board Spirit of Discovery were suffering from suspected norovirus with guests showing symptoms including vomiting, diarrhoea and fever.

The authorities in Gibraltar refused the ship entry and it is now en route back to Southampton.

A Princess Cruises spokesperson said: “Caribbean Princess, which had been on a 14-day cruise in the Caribbean, has curtailed its current voyage due to guests reporting symptoms consistent with a mild case of gastrointestinal illness.

“The affected guests are being treated by the onboard medical team and there are no cases of coronavirus identified among guests or crew.

“The ship, with 4,196 guests and crew, is now sailing back to the Port of Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, and is scheduled to arrive at Port Everglades at 7:00am on Thursday, February 13.

“This is a highly unusual development and we share the disappointment of our guests. However, the health and safety of our guests and crew is our top priority, and we have worked alongside the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to make this decision.

“All guests will receive a 50% refund on their voyage and a future cruise credit valued at 50% of their cruise for this inconvenience.

“Caribbean Princess will resume its schedule with a February 16 departure from Port Everglades for a round-trip Circle Caribbean cruise.”

Coronavirus already impacting travel beyond China air routes

Photo Credit: Rangizz/Shutterstock

The travel industry is bracing for a potentially serious downturn of unknown length as the coronavirus continues to spread, forcing cancellations of flights, tours and cruises in China and threatening to create a global tourism slowdown.

While most industry players said it was too early to predict the ultimate impact, investment analysts said the growing number of travel warnings and bans related to the virus, combined with election-year politics in the U.S. and geopolitical tensions, were worrisome in terms of the financial health of the industry in 2020.

“The tourism industry is already facing a number of headwinds, including ongoing uncertainty over the terms of the U.K.’s upcoming Brexit withdrawal and intensifying geopolitical tensions between a number of powerful nations,” said Ben Cordwell, travel and tourism analyst at the U.K. data and analytics company GlobalData. “These factors, combined with the coronavirus outbreak, could mean a tough year lies ahead for the international tourism industry.”

While some outbound tours and China-based cruises were cancelled, U.S. tour operators were mostly taking a wait-and-see approach, noting that this is the off-season for travel to China; group travel and cruises typically pick up in March.

Airlines felt the immediate brunt, with British Airways becoming the first carrier to halt all travel to China and others following suit.

Austin Horowitz, a senior aviation management consultant for ICF, said that even in a best-case scenario, demand for air travel to China would take a severe hit in the near term.

“The duration of how long this goes on until it is contained will have a significant impact on how fast the recovery is,” Horowitz said of travel demand.

A recent IATA analysis showed that pandemic outbreaks can have a major impact on air service demand but that demand also recovers quickly. The World Health Organization has not classified coronavirus as a pandemic, but it is likely to do so.

During the most significant pandemic of this century, the 2003 SARS outbreak in southern China that killed nearly 800 people and afflicted more than 8,000, Asia-Pacific airlines saw the number of monthly miles travelled by passengers bottom out at 35% below pre-pandemic levels. 

Over the course of 2003, revenue miles flown were down 8%, causing $6 billion in lost revenue. However, monthly passenger numbers at Asia-Pacific carriers had returned to pre-SARS levels within seven months of the start of the crisis.

Other pandemics, such as the 2015 MERS flu outbreak in South Korea, had a shorter-lived effect. The first month of the outbreak brought a 12% decline in travel to and from South Korea, IATA said. However, volume began to recover after just two months. 

“While there are risks that this outbreak could cause a sizeable disruption, history indicates that any effect on air transport would be temporary,” IATA said in a statement.

Cordwell, too, said that while it was hard to predict best- and worst-case scenarios, “I do think the market is quite resilient. People are not going to stop travelling. ... I do think the industry will definitely bounce back.”

Travel advisors, meanwhile, were scrambling to deal with the uncertainty.

“It has been a horrible experience with travel plans,” said Craig Hsu, vice president of Travel Design USA, which specializes in travel to Asia. “The mood of our travellers [is] very concerned and worried. We have cancelled multiple trips, including a large group that was supposed to travel to Wuhan in March. Luckily, the airlines and cruise lines worked with us for a full refund to our clients.”

Although acknowledging that his advisors were inundated with calls, he said the impact had been much greater in 2003. But he also pointed out that U.S. consumer demand for travel to China was much higher back then.

“SARS was huge,” he said. “People were more interested in travelling to China during that time versus now,” a shift that he attributed to trade and political tensions between the U.S. and China.

Agents said they also were starting to see apprehension about travel beyond China.

For example, Joan Novack, an independent advisor with a Travel Edge affiliate in New York, said she has two clients, women in their mid-80s, travelling to Southeast Asia with Abercrombie & Kent starting Feb. 24. One of the clients still wants to take the trip, she said, but the other is reluctant after hearing news reports about the spread of coronavirus. 

ASTA advised agents against making any recommendations to clients about whether or not to travel to affected areas, instead of encouraging them to direct clients to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the most up-to-date recommendations related to coronavirus. 

“Ultimately, it is the traveller who must make that decision, ideally doing so in an informed manner and in light of his or her own individual risk tolerance,” ASTA said in a statement.

Cruise lines with China-based ships last week began cancelling departures through early February. And some lines implemented stricter preboarding health screenings. Likewise, as of last week, more than 20 U.S. airports were screening passengers arriving from China.

As far as the long-term impact of coronavirus on cruise lines, UBS financial analyst Robin Farley said that Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCCL) is the most exposed to the China market, where it has about 6% of its deployments in 2020, followed by Carnival Corp. with 5% and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings with less than 1%. She said that while Chinese passengers are growing rapidly as a source in other parts of the world as well, “Chinese passenger travel to other markets may not be as impacted by these concerns.”

Farley also said that early checks had indicated that the coronavirus had not impacted North American cruise bookings.

“Concerns about viruses tend to be regional to the occurrence, and it is still early to know what regions may ultimately be impacted,” Farley wrote in an investors note.

The outbreak was top of mind at the Americas Lodging Investment Summit in Los Angeles last week, as hoteliers braced for a significant drop in one of their biggest growth markets as well as the potential fallout from a decline in outbound travel from China.

STR president Amanda Hite said, “I do expect there to be a pretty big demand drop [for hotels] in China. When I look at the initial impact on the U.S., there will be some key markets that feel it, especially in gateway cities that depend on Chinese travellers, like New York, Los Angeles. Those are markets where if this is a prolonged issue, that could be very impactful.”

Hite said a look back at the impact from SARS, which began around February of 2003, showed the peak drop in room demand for China came a few months later.

“We saw room demand drop 50% in April, 75% in May and then another 50% drop in room demand in June,” she said. “And then it started to pick back up.”
___

Jamie Biesiada, Johanna Jainchill, Christina Jelski and Robert Silk contributed to this report.

P&O Cruises ship 'fails US health check'

P&O Cruises ship 'fails US health check' 

P&O Oriana

US inspections reportedly found potentially hazardous food, unhygienic pool water and cockroaches on board two P&O Cruises’ ships.

Hygiene problems were discovered when Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) inspectors spot-checked Oriana and Oceana (pictured).

Oceana failed a health check in January while in the US, while Oriana passed an inspection in February despite cockroaches being found in a grill, ITV News reported.
P&O Cruises said issues on the ships were "rectified immediately".

Swimming and spa pools were closed on Oceana after inspectors found the water had not been disinfected and contained inadequate levels of chlorine and bromine.

Sandwiches were left to sit in "potentially hazardous" temperatures and one member of staff who was suffering from acute gastroenteritis, which can cause vomiting and diarrhoea, worked with food for three hours, the report found.

Inspectors also told the cruise company to "effectively control the presence of insects" after three live cockroaches were found underneath grills on Oriana.

A P&O Cruises spokesman said: 'We are extremely disappointed in the result of this inspection and we immediately rectified the areas identified as needing attention."

CDC: Cruise industry action is helping reduce Norovirus

A recent government study of norovirus on cruise ships found that the number of cases has been declining, in part because of proactive steps taken by the industry when outbreaks occur.

The study, published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in its weekly bulletin on Jan. 15, said the industry’s collaboration has helped reduce outbreaks and made them less severe during the six years studied.

The most recent example of stepped-up collaboration occurred last week when Royal Caribbean International’s Anthem of the Seas became the latest cruise ship to suffer an outbreak of the gastrointestinal illness.

According to a CDC investigative update on the outbreak, Royal took numerous steps to clean the Anthem and limit the spread of the virus among the ship’s 4,061 passengers.

Fay DeHaas, a Cruise Planners agent in West Hartford, Conn., who was taking a group of 16 on the Anthem’s next cruise on March 5, said Royal Caribbean emailed a letter explaining the outbreak to her clients.

“Royal Caribbean has been amazing,” DeHaas said.

She said the outbreak, which affected 132 passengers, has definitely created a buzz, adding, “Friends have been calling friends [saying], ‘What are you going to do? You can’t go.’ What I tell them is that the ship is always thoroughly sanitized, and there will be extra people onboard taking precautions to keep cleaning bathrooms, banisters, anything you touch.”

“We’re proud of the continual efforts of cruise line crews to clean and sanitize cruise ships to keep travelers healthy.” — Bud Darr, CLIA

The CDC study said measures such as those are having an impact. Of the 73.5 million passengers who sailed on a cruise ship subject to CDC reporting requirements from 2008 to 2014, only 129,678 cases of gastroenteritis were reported, a rate of 0.18%.

It said illness per 100,000 cruise ship travel days declined from 27.2 cases in 2008 to 22.3 cases in 2014. Although the report concluded that represented a “declining but not statistically significant trend,” it also noted that the rates were lower than those reported in an earlier 2001-04 study.

“Collaborative efforts with the cruise industry have allowed [the CDC’s Vessel Sanitation Program] to provide more rapid support to cruise lines and ships experiencing higher than expected levels of acute gastroenteritis,” the report, authored by three CDC health experts, stated.

It said fewer and less severe outbreaks are likely the result of earlier detection than in the past, “along with the cruise industry efforts to identify and control outbreaks.”

Increasingly, the study said, cruise officials have developed detailed outbreak plans, have used effective chemical disinfectants and have been proactive about seeking strategies to curb the virus’ spread.

In the case of the Anthem of the Seas, the CDC’s update on the ship said that Royal Caribbean had sent four hotel and housekeeping operations managers, three public health staffers and one nurse from the corporate office to oversee and assist with sanitation and outbreak response.

In addition, Royal sent 10 extra internal cleaning crew members and 10 contract cleaning staff plus equipment to the ship to assist in the execution of the Anthem’s outbreak response.

Royal Caribbean said it was able to contain the illness to about 10 cases a day, although by the end of the cruise enough passengers had fallen ill (3.3%) to qualify as an outbreak of gastroenteritis.

The Anthem of the Seas returned to Cape Liberty two days early from a 13-day Caribbean cruise, although Royal attributed that decision to the possibility of rough weather rather than to the illnesses.

Royal Caribbean tweeted that when the ship arrived in port, there were only a few active cases. “The ship will now go through an enhanced and thorough cleaning,” the tweet said.

The CDC study, titled “Acute Gastroenteritis on Cruise Ships — United States, 2008-2014,” drew praise from CLIA, the cruise industry trade group.

“We’re proud of the continual efforts of cruise line crews to clean and sanitize cruise ships to keep travelers healthy,” said Bud Darr, CLIA’s senior vice president for technical and regulatory affairs. “This study shows what a great job they’re doing.”

Darr said that norovirus cases at sea account for only a tiny fraction of the estimated 20 million total annual cases.

He said the public is more likely to hear about outbreaks on cruise ships because they report on gastrointestinal illnesses to a federal agency, and, “There is no similar federal program for hotels, airlines or restaurants.”

The CDC study noted that of the estimated 140 million norovirus cases in the U.S. between 2008 and 2014, verified cases on cruise ships accounted for 14,911, or about 0.01%.

However, while it was likely that many of the 172,810 cases of gastroenteritis on cruise ships during the period could be attributed to norovirus, public health workers were unable to verify the cause.

When clinical samples were available for testing, 92% of outbreaks were caused by norovirus, the study said. E. coli bacteria was the second-leading source of gastrointestinal illness.

The study said all of the E. coli outbreaks in the study period occurred on ships sailing back from Central or South America.

The highest rate of illness during the study period was in 2012 when a novel strain of norovirus emerged. The number of passenger outbreaks on cruise ships jumped to 27 that year from 15 in 2011 but dropped back to 17 outbreaks the following year.

Overall, passengers stand a less-than-1% chance of being on a cruise with gastrointestinal outbreak, the study showed. Of the 29,107 voyages during the study period, outbreaks occurred on 133 cruises, a rate of 0.5%. 

Only 1% of norovirus outbreaks are on cruise ships, says CDC

By Jerry Limone

Norovirus outbreaks most often makes headlines when they happen on cruise ships, but these only account for about 1% of all reported outbreaks, according to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

About 20 million people get sick from norovirus each year, according to the CDC Vital Signs report “Preventing Norovirus Outbreaks.”

In norovirus outbreaks for which investigators reported the source was food contamination, 70% are caused by infected food workers, CDC reported.

Of outbreaks caused by food workers, 54% involve touching ready-to-eat foods (i.e., food that is ready to be served without additional preparation, such as washed raw fruits and vegetables, baked goods or items that have already been cooked) with bare hands.

According to the CDC, observations of food service workers have shown that they practice proper hand washing only one out of four times. The CDC recommends that workers “wash hands carefully and often with soap and warm water for at least 20 seconds, especially after using the restroom.”

“Norovirus often gets attention for outbreaks on cruise ships, but those account for only about 1% of all reported norovirus outbreaks,” the report said.

“Norovirus is very contagious, and outbreaks can occur anywhere people gather or food is served.”

CLIA questions results of cruise poll

By Tom Stieghorst

CLIA said a Harris poll showing a declining image for the cruise industry isn’t consistent with 2014 booking trends and reports from travel agents about demand.

"The Harris poll does not reflect what CLIA is hearing, which is that bookings are solid and cruise ships are leaving full,” the trade group said in a statement.

Harris initially did a poll a year ago after the Carnival Triumph fire and found the quality, trust and intent-to-purchase scores had dropped compared to surveys before the incident. The follow-up poll said some of the image concerns had abated since then, but they had been re-aggravated by several outbreaks of norovirus early this year.

CLIA said that outbreaks on three ships affected 706 passengers and contrasted that to the 21 million cases that occur on land in the U.S. alone, citing Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates.

"CLIA works to educate consumers regarding the low rate of norovirus on cruise ships, and the extensive steps that cruise lines take to prevent outbreaks and treat any affected guests,” the statement said.