COVID Positive Crew Transferred to Another RCL Ship

[RichYak]

2 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

And, under the color coding scheme, just one crew case gets the ship into yellow category.

I doubt the CDC color chart is of much concern any longer. Of greater concern is ships being turned away from ports of call.

Edited January 14, 2022 by RichYak

[graphicguy]

Makes sense.  Sounds like the more they sail, the more refined they're making their processes in dealing with COVID protocols.

[chengkp75]

2 minutes ago, RichYak said:

I doubt the CDC color chart is of much concern any longer. Of greater concern is ships being turned away from ports of call.

Well, given that even under a voluntary covid mitigation regime, the CDC has ultimate jurisdiction over whether a ship enters the US or not, and nearly all these ships are homeported in the US, I would think that is a pretty major concern.

[Oville]

11 minutes ago, RichYak said:

The recovered crew from the same ship.

3 ships a week ago, 7 ships now.  Seems like cases are on the rise at a pretty fast clip.

[Oceangoer2]

Slightly off topic, but this is what happened to someone when their cruise was cancelled...maybe more.

https://news.yahoo.com/found-while-were-flying-last-203232478.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall

 

[RichYak]

3 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

Well, given that even under a voluntary covid mitigation regime, the CDC has ultimate jurisdiction over whether a ship enters the US or not, and nearly all these ships are homeported in the US, I would think that is a pretty major concern.

I meant yellow status on the color chart is not currently a concern. You're in some other stratosphere here. Even at peak Omicron, there' have been no ships denied re-entry into the US. 

 

Keeping positive rates below 1% so ships can call at Caribbean ports is the pressing concern.

[sayvan]

As we know the Omicron variant is highly contagious but fortunately so far seems mild… it really doesn’t matter whether you are on land or at sea .. it’s gonna spread. All we can do is take the proper precautions and hope to avoid it so our cruises don’t get cancelled.  My biggest fear is catching it enroute to the ship (on the plane or hotel stay pre cruise).  

[Jeremiah1212]

28 minutes ago, Oceangoer2 said:

Slightly off topic, but this is what happened to someone when their cruise was cancelled...maybe more.

https://news.yahoo.com/found-while-were-flying-last-203232478.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall

 

 

That would be majorly disappointing, but it's a crash course in pandemic travel 101. Hope for the best, expect the worst, and have a backup plan. Or two. Or three.

[miaminative0853]

Thanks to everyone who has replied and filled in some of the facts here. In fact checking here on the ship I am now doubtful that the Captain said the transfers were expressly for the purposes of getting us in to Nassau. That was the part of the story that seemed questionable. Seems like the bigger purpose as many have stated here is to isolate positve crew from passengers to reduce spread, treat them as needed, and return them to their jobs. Frankly I find it impressive the ends they are going to to stay afloat (pardon the pun). I do not envy RLC/Celebrity senior staff in having to deal with this mess. Navigating through storms with no radar, maps, or history. Whether you choose to cruise or not in these times, imagine being on the delivery side of the equation.

[followyourheart]

47 minutes ago, RichYak said:

Keeping a ship's total positive count under 1% is not that big a number.

A code yellow designation means 1% or higher, not < 1%. 

[RichYak]

6 minutes ago, followyourheart said:

A code yellow designation means 1% or higher, not < 1%. 

Incorrect. A code yellow designation means 0.1% (soon to be 0.3%) or higher, not 1%. But, regardless, that's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about Caribbean ports that are not allowing ships with >1% positivity rate to visit. This has nothing to do with the CDC or its color chart.

[cangelmd]

2 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

And, yet when the CDC suggested setting up hospitalization and quarantine ships to the cruise lines back in early 2020, this was seen as unjustified, and fiscally impossible.

 

As for who you replace them with, yes, either recovered crew or crew brought from their home country, vaccinated, and quarantined before starting work.  For hotel crew, there is a vast pool of people who have held these positions, and can be called at short notice.  What is more difficult is when the statutory marine crew (deck and engine) start having to be quarantined, the pool is smaller, and not all of them are "interchangeable" like hotel crew.

LOL, back then there were a lot of things said in different contexts that don’t seem so far fetched now, aren’t there.

Do appreciate your perspective on the maritime practicalities of making this work, thank you.

[D C]

3 hours ago, followyourheart said:

A code yellow designation means 1% or higher, not < 1%. 

Yellow is 0.1%

That's one case for 1000 people.  With most X ships sailing with <1000 people, a single case makes the ship yellow, which is a totally pointless/useless metric.

 

From the CDC:
 

Yellow Ship Criteria

• Ship is at or above CDC’s investigation threshold:
  • Restricted Voyages:
    • Cases reported in 0.10% or more of passengers (e.g., if 6500* passengers on board, CDC’s investigation threshold is met if there are 7 or more cases among passengers occurring during the previous 7 days), or
      • This percentage includes passenger cases occurring within 5 days of disembarkation that CDC was notified of by state or local health departments.
    • One or more cases reported in crew.
  • Simulated Voyages:
    • Cases reported in 1.5% or more of passengers, or
    • Cases reported in 1.0% or more of crew.
  • Ships with Crew Only (i.e., not yet submitted requests for simulated voyages or applications for restricted voyages, pending CDC approval, or sailing at a later date).
    • Cases reported in 1.0% or more of crew.

[followyourheart]

59 minutes ago, D C said:

Yellow is 0.1%

That's one case for 1000 people.  With most X ships sailing with <1000 people, a single case makes the ship yellow, which is a totally pointless/useless metric.

 

You are correct. Yellow is 0.1% and in your example 1 positive out of 1,000 would cause a yellow designation. But the wording says 0.1% OR MORE.  There could be many more positive people than that one person.  

 

[AmazedByCruising]

10 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

Well, given that even under a voluntary covid mitigation regime, the CDC has ultimate jurisdiction over whether a ship enters the US or not, and nearly all these ships are homeported in the US, I would think that is a pretty major concern

 

(Not to make a point about Noro which is different), but would it be possible that CDC decided that measures on ships won't help "preventing the introduction, transmission, and spread of communicable diseases in the United States" much when Florida alone had 843K cases in just the last two weeks? (843K that got a test, not the multitude that didn't have a clue they were infected). Even if they banned all ships, the pax would be disembarked somewhere else, then fly, and because of those extra flights are probably more infected than just letting them disembark in Miami where at least some would drive home.

[D C]

4 minutes ago, AmazedByCruising said:

 

(Not to make a point about Noro which is different), but would it be possible that CDC decided that measures on ships won't help "preventing the introduction, transmission, and spread of communicable diseases in the United States" much when Florida alone had 843K cases in just the last two weeks? (843K that got a test, not the multitude that didn't have a clue they were infected). Even if they banned all ships, the pax would be disembarked somewhere else, then fly, and because of those extra flights are probably more infected than just letting them disembark in Miami where at least some would drive home.

The CDC fought tooth and nail against cruising when the same thing was the case last year. 

[AmazedByCruising]

10 minutes ago, D C said:

The CDC fought tooth and nail against cruising when the same thing was the case last year. 

 

At that time it wasn't that unreasonable to be afraid of ships coming back with everyone on board needing a ventilator. Graphs showed countries and even had a special category for cruise ships. 20 in Belgium, 60 on that ship. Now the virus has mutated into a nicer version, pax are mostly vaccinated, there's is more data and research to make decisions. And now it's 250,000 in this country, 1,845,000 there, but Megaship of the Seas also had one crew member testing positive so CDC has raised the danger level for Megaship of the Seas and is monitoring closely. 

[D C]

13 minutes ago, AmazedByCruising said:

 

At that time it wasn't that unreasonable to be afraid of ships coming back with everyone on board needing a ventilator. Graphs showed countries and even had a special category for cruise ships. 20 in Belgium, 60 on that ship. Now the virus has mutated into a nicer version, pax are mostly vaccinated, there's is more data and research to make decisions. And now it's 250,000 in this country, 1,845,000 there, but Megaship of the Seas also had one crew member testing positive so CDC has raised the danger level for Megaship of the Seas and is monitoring closely. 

That would have been extremely unreasonable to be afraid of.   Ships full of vaccinated people have been the safest place on earth since vaccine effectiveness was first established and that was no mystery to anyone at the CDC. 

[Sam.Seattle]

13 hours ago, TeeRick said:

Just one thing after another that screams out to me not to even consider cruising until Omicron subsides.  But hopefully that will be soon by all current predictions.

You might feel better to turn off your computer so one thing after another stops "screaming" out to you about not cruising.

[Oville]

1 hour ago, Sam.Seattle said:

You might feel better to turn off your computer so one thing after another stops "screaming" out to you about not cruising.

My guess is if you knew who TeeRick is you might not have been so snarky.

For many of us on here we cannot be more thankful for his input since Covid started.

Edited January 15, 2022 by Oville

[jelayne]

15 hours ago, TeeRick said:

Just one thing after another that screams out to me not to even consider cruising until Omicron subsides.  But hopefully that will be soon by all current predictions.

I respect your  knowledge and your contributions to these discussions. Each of us has to do what we feel reasonably comfortable doing.  We are at the point where we  take reasonable precautions but we won’t go into hibernation again.  Hopefully we have another 10 yrs of travel , but realistically it is closer to 6-7 yrs if we are lucky. We think most of us will get omicron , we just hope it doesn’t strike on a ship but if it does we have thought about what we will do.

Hoping we will meet on a post pandemic cruise.

[Oceangoer2]

6 hours ago, jelayne said:

I respect your  knowledge and your contributions to these discussions. Each of us has to do what we feel reasonably comfortable doing.  We are at the point where we  take reasonable precautions but we won’t go into hibernation again.  Hopefully we have another 10 yrs of travel , but realistically it is closer to 6-7 yrs if we are lucky. We think most of us will get omicron , we just hope it doesn’t strike on a ship but if it does we have thought about what we will do.

Hoping we will meet on a post pandemic cruise.

 

Respectfully....is there a cut off date when we shouldn't travel again?    Realistically, yes...but hopefully as long as I can get in a car, fly on a plane, cruise on any 'boat'.....masked, vaxxed, and keeping social distance.......I'll keep on booking my cruises and hope they'll stop being cancelled.....age be dam*ed.

[TeeRick]

9 hours ago, Sam.Seattle said:

You might feel better to turn off your computer so one thing after another stops "screaming" out to you about not cruising.

Thanks for the advice Sam.

[TeeRick]

7 hours ago, Oville said:

My guess is if you knew who TeeRick is you might not have been so snarky.

For many of us on here we cannot be more thankful for his input since Covid started.

Thank you much appreciated.😀

[Sam.Seattle]

7 hours ago, jelayne said:

I respect your  knowledge and your contributions to these discussions. Each of us has to do what we feel reasonably comfortable doing.  We are at the point where we  take reasonable precautions but we won’t go into hibernation again.  Hopefully we have another 10 yrs of travel , but realistically it is closer to 6-7 yrs if we are lucky. We think most of us will get omicron , we just hope it doesn’t strike on a ship but if it does we have thought about what we will do.

Hoping we will meet on a post pandemic cruise.

Live on!  Live large!  Cherish each day...  Love your style.