A cruise ship out of South Florida will skip two ports after 55 people onboard tested positive for COVID-19. Royal Caribbean International confirmed Thursday that its ‘Odyssey of the Seas’ ship will not stop in Curaçao or Aruba as planned. The ship left Port Everglades on Saturday for an 8-night Caribbean sailing. It plans to remain out at sea until returning to Fort Lauderdale as scheduled on Sunday.  Last Saturday, another Royal Caribbean ship – ‘Symphony of the Seas’ – arrived back in Miami after 48 people tested positive for COVID-19.

Royal Caribbean said in a statement: “The decision was made together with the islands out of an abundance of caution due to the current trend of COVID-19 cases in the destinations’ communities as well as crew and guests testing positive on board — 55 crew members and guests, representing 1.1% of the onboard community. The cruise sailed with 95% of the onboard community fully vaccinated.”

Royal Caribbean says all 55 people who tested positive are fully vaccinated and mildly symptomatic or asymptomatic. The cruise line declined to say how many of those people are passengers and how many are crew.  Their statement read: “We continue to monitor their health. Close contacts were also identified and placed in quarantine to be monitored for 24 hours prior to testing.”

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