CDC: 452 covid cases on cruise ships from Jun 26 to Aug 26

[smokeybandit]

https://www.yahoo.com/now/covid-protocols-cruises-absolutely-worked-191044849.html

 

452! That's all. This isn't just RC, this is across all cruise lines under the CDC's purview.

 

452 case, 1/3 of them being crew. On 57 ships over a two month span (granted, not all 57 ships sailed that entire time). That's amazingly low.

 

 

 

[GatorCruiser]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2021/11/05/covid-cruise-cdc-positive-us/

[Ampurp85]

@GatorCruiser 1350 cases over a four month period........when Chicago had 7,359 new cases and 38 new deaths reported just for 11/08/2021 is still amazing.

Even with people not wearing mask or practicing social distancing on Allure I still felt safe.

[smokeybandit]

1 hour ago, GatorCruiser said:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2021/11/05/covid-cruise-cdc-positive-us/

Good find.  That's based on the CDC report justifying extending the CSO. The relevant stuff stats at the bottom of page 19

 

https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/cruise/pdf/CDC-CSO-Extension-10-25-21-p.pdf

 

1359 cases, only 49 hospitalizations.  

But they do not say how many passengers sailed during that time, which is likely intentional as to keep the focus on "1359" and not what a miniscule that number that is based on number of passengers. If CLIA "conservatively" estimated 206k through Aug 26, through Oct 21 that number is easily double that as more ships came online.  Maybe even triple that. 

[smokeybandit]

8 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

@GatorCruiser 1350 cases over a four month period........when Chicago had 7,359 new cases and 38 new deaths reported just for 11/08/2021 is still amazing.

Even with people not wearing mask or practicing social distancing on Allure I still felt safe.

It is highly underrated on what the cruise lines' air filtration efforts have done for preventing covid spread.

[GatorCruiser]

I’d feel safe on a ship even without vaccine mandates and without masks as I’m vaxxed , but that’s just me. I understand the policies nevertheless.  

[SpeedNoodles]

I sort of laugh (only because it's ironic, not because it's funny) that we came back from our Allure sailing and my husband has the worst cold/flu that he's ever had in his life (currently still on day 9 of it - tested negative x3 for covid).  So we didn't get the vid, but we sure got one hell of a cold, lol.  But yes, we also felt super safe on the ship.

[twangster]

The CDC has used cruise ships as an experiment to test various theories they had about this virus.

It's proven to be a huge success. 

Time to let go of the cruise industry and once again too late, apply these lessons in places like nursing homes where we have lost so many.

[Vancity Cruiser]

20 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

Good find.  That's based on the CDC report justifying extending the CSO. The relevant stuff stats at the bottom of page 19

 

https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/cruise/pdf/CDC-CSO-Extension-10-25-21-p.pdf

 

1359 cases, only 49 hospitalizations.  

But they do not say how many passengers sailed during that time, which is likely intentional as to keep the focus on "1359" and not what a miniscule that number that is based on number of passengers. If CLIA "conservatively" estimated 206k through Aug 26, through Oct 21 that number is easily double that as more ships came online.  Maybe even triple that. 

Don Terrace reported that 600000 passengers have sailed in that timeframe, making the infection rate 0.0024%

[PG Cruiser]

How many of these 452 developed symptoms?  How many were hospitalized?  I hope no one died

[AspiringCruisePlanner]

There was at least one death though the cruise line was not to blame.  This was from the latest CDC CSO Extension.

Quote

For example, a passenger on a cruise ship (Cruise Ship F), who was fully vaccinated and had tested negative for COVID-19 three days before boarding, boarded the ship while symptomatic for COVID-19, but denied having symptoms.  The passenger died three days after boarding for reasons related to COVID-19.

 

[smokeybandit]

23 minutes ago, PG Cruiser said:

How many of these 452 developed symptoms?  How many were hospitalized?  I hope no one died

Based on the CDC report with a wider time frame, only 49 out of over 1300 were hospitalized.

[JeffB]

The CDC's apparent plan is to let the CSO become a recommendation after January 15th, 2022. I say this because Fain commented on this when he was asked what was RCL going to do with COVID protocols after the 15th if the CSO expires? His response amounted to, "nothing," reflecting the view that RCL, along with most of the cruise lines, have adopted the health and safety protocols contained in CLIA's Healthy Sail Plan and will continue these. The question came specifically in the context of questions for vaccination requirements to board for kids 5-11. His response was non-specific and my read on them was that kids older than 5 will at some point have to be vaccinated to board but it's going to be a while. Current protocols will continue for unvaxed kids. 

We've sailed 6 times since July and will have completed a 7th before the end of the year- a good 45d aboard. We've been aware of 5-8 guests testing positive on just one of those sailings (see below). We've complied with all health and safety protocols including a short masking requirement inside aboard a west bound Atlantic crossing on Apex from Barcelona. After we left our last port call in Teneriffe and all crew and guests testing negative, the indoor mask requirement was ended. We've felt COVID safer on cruise ships than any other venue were people might congregate indoors and outdoors.

The masking requirement indoors on our Apex sailing was apparently precipitated by a small outbreak aboard Apex repositioning from Athens to Rome to Barcelona right before the crossing. We heard 5 guests tested positive after boarding in Rome - all EU citizens who were negative on boarding, developed symptoms, reported to medical and were subsequently tested positive. They were isolated and removed from the ship in Barcelona. Somewhere around 60 contacts, 2/3 crew, were quarantined, tested 2X in 10d and released. None of them tested positive. Apparently no one got seriously ill requiring hospitalization. 

IOW, my small sample size sailings are consistent with CDC numbers of some 450 COVID cases reported onboard cruise ships.... and, of course out of context and entirely misleading. By my count, during the the sailings I made over a 5 month period and among around 6000 other guests we experienced 5 positives none of which developed serious illness. That's a 0.00125 occurrence rate. I would imagine that rate is below any similar venues where people gathering there catch a cold (coronavirus). 

The point is that public health officials need to start recognizing the cost of significant restrictions and other precautions involving limiting mobility and social contact are not justified in environments where viral prevalence/infection rate, including breakthrough infections in the vaccinated population, is low (about 3%). I support vaccination requirements and, at this point, I believe they should only be mandated in indoor congregate gatherings for specific high risk age cohorts and/or people with certain medical conditions (epidemiologist now know at what age risks of serious COVID symptoms increases and what medical conditions predispose people to higher morbidity and mortality from exposure to SARS2). 

I also support wide spread surveillance testing to determine local prevalence rates and the need to implement or strike local mitigation measures and health protocols. We're entering a post pandemic phase of limited and controllable/manageable epidemic SARS2 infections. The need to shut things down or overly restrict access, mobility and social contact on a widespread basis should end (end the PHE at the national and state level) and citizens should be encouraged to return to normal activities while public health officials offer guidance on how to keep from getting sick from SARS2. Nothing new here but public reassurance and awareness will go a long way to reestablishing the public's confidence to return to normal activities of daily living.