There are currently over two dozen crew members on the Carnival Vista who tested positive for COVID-19, according to two sources who prefer to remain anonymous. A total of twenty-six ship employees on the Carnival Vista reportedly tested positive for COVID-19. This morning, the Carnival cruise ship called on port in Mahogany Bay, Roatan Island, Honduras.
The Carnival cruise ship departed from Galveston, Texas on Saturday, August 7th after a cruise last week when an unspecified number of guests tested positive for the virus. Carnival released a statement regarding the prior cruise, admitting that a “small number” of cruise passengers tested positive for COIVD-19. Carnival thereafter made a decision to implement a policy that all guests on the cruise ship are now required to wear masks. We reported on the positive guest cases last week after learning of the tests results from the Galveston Daily News. Carnival refused to state the actual number of guests infected with COVID-19.
We were initially told that there were twenty-three (23) crew members who tested positive for COVID-19 on the Carnival Vista as of last Saturday afternoon (August 7th) but the number increased to twenty-six (26) as of today. It it less than clear when the first crew members tested positive.
The 26 Carnival crew members who reportedly are infected for COVID-19 involve employees from the following departments on the ship: casino department -10 (including casino manager), restaurant and restaurant services department – 4, entertainment – 4 , guest services – 2, photo – 2, housekeeping – 1, and beverage – 1. The job positions of two crew members were not specified.
The infected crew members are reportedly quarantined in their cabins. We have no information regarding contact tracing of these ship employees’ close contacts.
Carnival Cruise Line has not yet responded to our inquiries whether any of the infected crew are symptomatic or require medical treatment, nor has it provided a statement of any kind to our firm at this time.
The cruise line provided a press release to local newspaper in Houston last weekend admitting only that a “small number” of guests were infected. Carnival stated that “all our crew and almost all of our guests” are vaccinated. It also stated that “we have a process in place to randomly test a large percentage of our crew every day.”
The CDC’s color code status report shows that a yellow color for the Carnival Vista since last week, signifying that the CDC started an investigation into COVID-19 on the ship. The CDC does not state the number of shipboard infections or details of its shipboard investigations.
Last Sunday, federal district court Judge Kathleen Williams granted Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings’ motion for preliminary injunction against the State of Florida holding that “scientific research shows that cruise lines are hotbeds for COVID-19 transmission.”
The Carnival cruise ship will leave Roatan this evening. It is is scheduled to arrive in Belize City tomorrow morning at 8:00 a.m. It remains scheduled to call on Cozumel on Thursday and return back to Galveston on Saturday.
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Image credit: Carnival Vista -Gordon Leggett / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons / wikimedia; AIS data – MarineTraffic.
August 10, 2021 Update:
A local newspaper in Belize published this article raising the issue why a U.S. based cruise ship is allowed to sail guests from a cruise ship infected with COVID-19 to Belize
August 11, 2021 Update:
The Carnival Vista continues its week long cruise after sailing from Roatan to Belize where it arrived this morning with twenty-six crew members infected with COVID-19 aboard. Carnival continues to refuse to state whether the crew members are symptomatic and/or require medical treatment.
The Belize Tourism Board ” Safe Restart of Cruise Operations in Belize” protocol says cruise ship disembarkation will not be permitted if a ship has more than 2% of passenger/crew positive for COVID.
My question is how many guests and crew members are on the Carnival ship on this particular cruise? (I realize that normally the capacity for this ship is nearly 4,000 guests and around 1,4000 crew).
The ship will sail to Cozumel tomorrow before returning to Galveston on Saturday. We are not aware of any positive cases involving guests on this particular cruise yet, although all CCL ships (including the Vista) sailing from U.S. ports are designated yellow or orange per the CDC.
Further Update August 11, 2021:
Positive COVID-19 Cases Increase to 27 as Carnival Vista Leaves Belize Heading for Cozumel