A German newspaper reports that there was a COVID-19 outbreak among crew members on  the World Voyager cruise ship operated by Nicko Cruises. The virus was initially detected in a member of the engine room crew and then spread to other ship employees. The cruise ship is currently in Hamburg, Germany.  As a result, the ship “is therefore not allowed to leave the port for the time being.”

The cruise scheduled for last weekend had to be canceled. “Before guests are allowed on board again, all crew members must be retested,” according to the German press.

According to Nicko Cruises, the entire crew is vaccinated against COVID-19. The next cruise with passengers is expected to leave tomorrow for France and Portugal.

This involves one of many cruise lines that have recently experienced COVID-19 outbreaks among vaccinated crew members. A month ago, the Carnival Vista experienced COVID-19 outbreaks on consecutive cruises involving twenty-six (26) crew members and, a week later, sixteen (16) crew members, as well as guests, one of whom died. More recently, the MSC Virtuosa experienced a super-spreader event involving over 100 guests who became infected, including at least one who died of COVID-19. In both the Carnival and MSC incidents, there was a lack of transparency with the cruise lines refusing to disclose the extent of the outbreaks.

These type of cases will continue to occur as the pandemic continues and the Delta variant further emerges.

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Image credit: Top – World Voyager – NDR; World Voyager – Bottom – Nicko Cruises.