A Norwegian Cruise Line ship has experienced an out break of COVID-19. The ship, named The Norwegian Breakaway, docked Saturday, Dec 4, in New Orleans with 10 confirmed cases of Covid-19. On Sunday that number had increased to 17 with one crew member has tested positive for the Omicron Variant. All 3,200 passengers and crew were fully vaccinated.
The infections occurred despite the cruise lines’ efforts to enforce strict public health rules such as testing requirements, capacity limits, and mask mandates, and requiring all passengers and crew to be fully vaccinated.
The ship left New Orleans on November 28, and made stops in Belize, Honduras, and Mexico, before returning to New Orleans.
Since cruise lines resumed operations in June 2021, there have been 1,350 cases of COVID-19 reported. At least 49 hospitalizations and one death have occurred after testing positive on a cruise.
With 17 of the 3,200 people on board infected, that puts the current infection rate slightly higher than 0.5%. And as time passes, that number could go higher.
It’s may be worth noting that during the Pfizer phase 3 trial, the group which received the Pfizer vaccine experienced a 0.04% infection rate. That makes the current infection rate on the cruise ship 12.5x higher than that of the clinical trial.