14 crew have COVID-19, Royal Caribbean captain says, after passengers got off in Miami
Fourteen crew members aboard Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas have tested positive for COVID-19, according to a recording obtained by the Miami Herald.
On Saturday, a crew member aboard the ship recorded the captain’s announcement of the results over the loudspeaker system.
“At the moment, we have 14 that have test positive for COVID-19 onboard the Oasis of the Seas out of all we have tested,” the captain said in the recording. The ship was based at PortMiami until the industry canceled new cruises on March 13. Now it is anchored off of The Bahamas.
Royal Caribbean said in a statement: “The health and well-being of our crew is our foremost priority. Crew members who exhibited symptoms were evaluated by our medical staff and remain under close supervision. In accordance with our health and safety protocols, our crew have been asked to self-isolate in cabins while we await confirmation of initial results from public health authorities.”
The company did not confirm if anyone on board had tested positive.
The captain did not say when the patients had been tested. The crew member, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation, said some workers showed flu-like symptoms aboard the ship before the company suspended cruises on March 13.
“It’s a little scary because we didn’t know there were so many cases on the ship,” the crew member said.
The ship docked at PortMiami on March 15 to let off the last of its passengers. One of those passengers said neither the company nor the border patrol asked about his health or checked for fever when he disembarked. He said his waiter in the main dining room disappeared midway through the seven-night cruise.
“They said he was sick,” he said in a message. “We weren’t too bothered then, thought it was just a precaution. Now we are of course thinking whether he had gotten the COVID. So far me and my family are OK.”
Told 11 days after cruise ended
On Thursday, the passenger received an email from Royal Caribbean notifying him that someone who was on his March 8 cruise had tested positive for COVID-19, and telling him to stay home for 14 days. By that point, 11 days had past since he got off the ship in Miami and flew home.
Royal Caribbean did not immediately respond to a request for comment about whether Thursday’s notification referred to the ill crew members or another person.
PortMiami records show the Oasis docked at the port the morning of March 24. The crew member said the ship let some workers leave to go home. It left port later that day.
The ship then set out for the Bahamas. There are more than 1,700 workers still on the ship, the crew member said.
The ship is moored about 15 miles from Great Harbour Cay’s shore in the Bahamas, according to ship tracker websites. The Oasis is floating near five other Royal Caribbean ships and two Holland America cruises: the Zuiderdam and Volendam.
The Zaandam, another Holland America cruise ship, has had four passengers die on board and is carrying almost 150 people who are sick with flu-like symptoms. Panama announced late Saturday that it will allow the ship to pass through the Panama Canal on its way to Port Everglades, where it will unload its increasingly sick passengers and crew.
Suspicions on Oasis of the Seas
Workers on the Oasis of the Seas had suspected there was a positive case onboard. Their fears were confirmed with the captain’s announcement Saturday, the crew member said. The ship is currently under the company’s Outbreak Prevention Plan Level 3. The plan is enacted to prevent and respond to any illness outbreaks aboard ships, according to the Royal Caribbean website.
On the recording, the captain said crew members were confined to their cabins and the company was working on getting workers into guest bedrooms.
The company began to hand out masks, gloves and other protective gear to those on the ship on Saturday, the crew member said.
Over the loudspeaker the captain said, “I ask you, again, social distancing when you are leaving your cabins to go up to eat. When you are eating, also social distancing and making sure you have the six feet or two meters between each other.”
The crew member said the ship is scheduled to return to Miami, the cruise’s home port, on March 31. But they are unsure if that schedule will be kept.
This story has been updated to clarify when the last passengers disembarked the Oasis of the Seas in Miami, on March 15.
Miami Herald reporter David J. Neal contributed to this report.
This story was originally published March 29, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
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