Royal Caribbean passenger retests negative, ending COVID scare that cut cruise short

A passenger on Royal Caribbean International’s Quantum of the Seas ship who tested positive for COVID-19 aboard the ship on Wednesday tested negative on Thursday, the Singapore ministry of health said in a statement, ending an outbreak scare that caused the company to cut the cruise short.

The 83-year-old man was a passenger on one of the company’s first cruises since it canceled passenger operations in mid-March amid COVID-19 outbreaks on multiple ships. The cruises, which began this month, are three- and four-day cruises to nowhere leaving from Singapore.

The Dec. 7 cruise was carrying 1,680 passengers. The company said all were tested for COVID-19 before departing the cruise terminal Thursday.

The company canceled the following cruise that was scheduled to depart on Thursday.

This story was originally published December 10, 2020 at 4:28 PM.

Taylor Dolven

Miami Herald

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Taylor Dolven is a business journalist who has covered the tourism industry at the Miami Herald since 2018. Her reporting has uncovered environmental violations of cruise companies, the impact of vacation rentals on affordable housing supply, safety concerns among pilots at MIA’s largest cargo airline and the hotel industry’s efforts to delay a law meant to protect workers from sexual harassment.