Two tests COVID-19 positive on a Royal Caribbean cruise-ship

Cruise operator Royal Caribbean (RCL) said that two guests onboard its Celebrity Millennium vessel have tested positive for COVID-19 but are asymptomatic and currently in quarantine.

The guests, who were living in the same room, are being observed by the company's medical team, the cruise operator said, stating that it was carrying contact tracing, expediting testing for all close connections of the people.

After a year of closure, Celebrity Millennium was the first cruise ship in North America to resume sailing the previous week.

Royal Caribbean began sailing in June after adhering to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) general guidelines that covered a fully vaccinated crew and everyone over 16 showing proof of vaccination against COVID-19. Cruiseships are amongst the last to restart to their pre-pandemic services as the CDC laid out strict guidance earlier this year for the cruise industry for resuming trips after some ships became hotbeds for the virus last year.

In 2020, cruise ships across the world had become hotspots for coronavirus, situations had gone out-of-hand with government's coming in to airlift their citizens from the virus outbreak. On some ships, hundreds of people tested COVID-19 positive including the crew and other staff members. Since then, there had been an alarm in resuming the cruise-ship functions.

After several incidents of COVID-19 outbreaks on cruise ships, the operators had to shut down their operations. Now, after more than a year most of the cruise lines are slowly resuming their sailings by inviting fully vaccinated guests, offering fully vaccinated crew members who are isolated for two weeks after entering the ship.

Not only that, frequent medical examinations have been usual on all the cruise ships that have started sailing again.