27 cruise ships have reported COVID-19 cases. Why can’t we find out how many?

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Good luck if you’d like to know how many people infected with COVID-19 are coming into South Florida seaports aboard cruise ships.

Cruise lines and government agencies are not making that data publicly available as the cruise industry resumes operations from U.S.-based ports. Critics who want to see more transparency say cruise consumers and community members deserve to know how successful cruise lines are at preventing spread of the virus.

Twenty-seven ships that currently operate or will be operating in U.S. waters have reported COVID-19 infections to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention since cruising resumed this summer, according to the CDC’s website on Saturday.

Of the 27 ships, 14 are sailing with passengers. Ten have not yet returned to passenger service and are operating with crew members only, and three have undertaken only simulated or test cruises required by the CDC for ships that plan to sail with more than 5% of unvaccinated passengers.

Forty ships monitored by the CDC have reported no infections, but the CDC doesn’t post the number of infections found aboard the others.

It fell to the Tourism Board of Belize last Wednesday to confirm 27 cases aboard a Carnival Cruise Line ship, the Carnival Vista, that was scheduled to return to the Port of Galveston over the weekend. Twenty-six of those infected are crew members and one is a passenger, the Central American nation said in a news release on Wednesday.

Most of the infected crew members work closely with passengers in the ship’s restaurants and casinos as well as its housekeeping, entertainment and beverage departments, according to information that Miami-based maritime attorney Jim Walker said he received from a trusted source.

Prior to the news release from Belize, Carnival Cruise Line, headquartered in Miami, would say only that it had “a small number” of cases onboard.

On Friday, a Carnival spokesman responded to the South Florida Sun Sentinel’s request for infection counts from each of Carnival’s voyages this summer by stating “we are not reporting specific numbers.”

Among owners of the 27 ships with reported infections, officials of Carnival Corp. brands Princess Cruises and Holland America likewise declined to provide numbers of positive cases reported aboard their ships. Norwegian Cruise Line did not respond to the Sun Sentinel’s request, and Royal Caribbean said it planned to send numbers but had to confirm them first.

A spokeswoman for MSC Cruises, headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, confirmed that two infections have been reported aboard the company’s only ship currently operating, MSC Meravigila, which sails from PortMiami.

Since the industry resumed operations this summer, thousands of passengers and crew members have been sailing aboard cruise ships with no problem, cruise lines report.

When infections are discovered, they have not been regarded with the same degree of alarm as they were when COVID-19 spread throughout the world in early 2020. That’s largely because extensive health and safety protocols developed by the cruise lines, working with the CDC, during the 15-month shutdown have reduced the virus’s ability to spread on board.

As part of those protocols, cruise lines have been allowed to resume operations by either demonstrating through simulated or test voyages that they have implemented sufficient health and safety protocols or by ensuring vaccination rates of at least 95% of passengers and 98% of crew members for each voyage.

Despite Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ “vaccine passport” ban, cruise lines operating in Florida have achieved 95% passenger vaccination rates by asking guests to provide their status voluntarily, while dissuading bookings by unvaccinated passengers by requiring them to buy travel insurance and be subjected to more testing and tighter restrictions onboard ships.

Vaccinated people are less likely to contract the virus and if they do, they are less likely to experience serious, if any, symptoms.

But so-called “breakthrough” infections of vaccinated people have increased as the highly contagious delta variant has become the dominant strain of the virus. Even among vaccinated people, the delta variant spreads easily and is more contagious than earlier variants. And a growing percentage of vaccinated people who test positive are reporting symptoms, though not as severe as infected people who are unvaccinated.

Yet, many consumers, even avid cruisers, remain nervous about boarding a cruise ship. For them, it’s difficult to forget the global crisis that unfolded in early 2020, when at least 2,592 people became infected aboard 54 ships between January and April. Sixty-five of those people died, according to the National Institutes of Health, while thousands were stuck on board ships for weeks while they waited for a port to allow them to disembark.

With those memories still fresh and the virus newly ascendant, consumers and the communities where cruise ships operate have a right to know how many infected crew members and passengers are aboard each voyage, Walker said.

So far, cruise lines have mostly waited until word got out from passengers using social media to acknowledge onboard infections, he said. Consumers wondering whether to risk boarding a cruise ship should be able to know how many infected people were on the ship during the previous voyage, he said.

“No one is being forthcoming with basic information about how many people are in fact infected,” Walker said. “It seems to me that the CDC should be disclosing the numbers and requiring cruise lines to be transparent, in the interest of health and guest safety.”

U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, whose congressional district includes Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, called on cruise lines to release infection data regularly, particularly as the highly contagious delta variant continues to fuel a COVID-19 surge in the state.

“Now that cruise ships are back in the water, operators have a responsibility to provide data on infections to those on board and those considering booking,” she said in a statement emailed by her press secretary. “This will help ensure that passengers, crew, and those that reside in or around areas where ships dock make informed decisions about their health.”

A spokeswoman for DeSantis did not answer when asked whether DeSantis supports making infection numbers available to the public.

In Broward County, consumers had no way of knowing that seven passengers tested positive onboard the Celebrity Edge during a weeklong cruise that sailed out of Port Everglades on July 24.

Halfway into the cruise, Leslie Wolowitz and his wife, Beverly Nattia Wolowitz, of Boynton Beach, found out that a couple who shared their lunch table a couple of days earlier had tested positive.

Two hours after the lunch, the Wolowitzes attended a meet-and-greet event with the ship’s captain and several officers. Beverly had her photo taken standing next to the captain. No one at the meet-and-greet wore a mask, the couple said.

Two days later, ship officials told the Wolfowitzes, who were vaccinated, that they would have to remain quarantined in their cabin for the rest of the cruise.

The Wolfowitzes learned via the ship’s loudspeaker that five passengers tested positive aboard the Edge during the voyage.

Port Everglades spokeswoman Ellen Kennedy said port officials learned after the ship had returned to port that it had seven infected people on board. The port did not disseminate the information in a news release or on its website. “I don’t recall anyone asking for it,” she said.

Despite the Celebrity Edge sailing weekly from the port since its first return voyage on June 26, Royal Caribbean has not been providing weekly reports of onboard infection numbers to port officials, Broward County Mayor Steve Geller said.

The CDC does not currently require cruise lines to notify ports of infections if fewer than 11 passengers or crew members test positive during any voyage, Geller said. For numbers fewer than 11, cruise lines report infection numbers only to the Florida Health Department, the CDC and the U.S. Coast Guard.

The Florida Department of Health did not immediately respond on Friday to a request for cruise ships’ infection numbers. A spokesman for the Coast Guard’s Southeast Region said he would look into how and whether passenger ship infection data is collected.

Responding to a July 20 request for numbers of infections per cruise ship, a CDC spokesman said obtaining that information would require a formal request to the agency’s Freedom of Information Act office. On Aug. 12, an official in the agency’s FOIA office estimated the data would not be available until Sept. 2.

Other ports hosting cruise ships as the industry resumes said they don’t receive regular reports of onboard infections either.

Peter McGraw, spokesman for the Port of Seattle, home base for several Alaska-bound cruise ships, said cruise lines report to local health authorities, he said. PortMiami spokeswoman Andria Muniz-Amador said her port does not get regular case reports from cruise lines based there.

But Port Canaveral communications director Steve Linden said his port received a notice from Carnival Cruise Line that two unvaccinated children and one of their parents, who was vaccinated, tested positive prior to leaving the ship on July 31. Under agreements between his port and cruise lines that use it, the port is notified whenever passengers or crew members test positive, he said.

Basic information on the status of the 62 ships monitored by the CDC is updated daily on a web page that displays color codes assigned by the agency. The 27 ships with reported infections are coded yellow or orange, while 40 ships with no infections are coded green. None are currently coded red — which would trigger additional health precautions such as immediately returning to port or delaying the next voyage.

As of Aug. 14, the CDC had assigned orange color status to six Carnival Cruise Line ships, three Royal Caribbean Group ships, two Norwegian Cruise Line ships, and one Disney ship. Orange means infections have been discovered but rates are below the threshold for CDC investigation.

Yellow means the number of passenger or crew cases met the threshold for CDC investigation. Six Carnival Cruise Line ships are designated yellow, as is one each operated by Carnival Corp. sister lines Holland America and Princess Cruises.

Still, key details, such as the number of infections found aboard yellow- or orange-coded ships, or when those infections were reported, are not posted on the CDC page or elsewhere on the agency’s site.

And while no ships are currently designated as red, it’s unclear what number or percentage of passengers and crew must become infected to trigger red status.

On a separate web page, the CDC explains that multiple factors will be reviewed with cruise lines before a ship is designated red. Generally, a ship must have sustained transmission of COVID-19 or CLI (cold-like illness) to be designated red.

CDC spokespersons declined to respond to several emails asking it to identify the infection rate threshold for a ship to enter red status and why the agency isn’t posting infection totals on its website.

After the Sun Sentinel asked Port Everglades officials for numbers of infections aboard the Celebrity Edge, a spokesman for parent company Royal Caribbean International said the company planned to start sending weekly reports to the port.

Broward Mayor Geller said he wants the port to get that data. Still, he said, cruise lines can’t hide a major outbreak. Thanks to social media, “we would know about it,” he said.

Carnival Cruise Line communications director Chris Chaimes declined to explain why the company will not publicly release numbers of infected passengers and crew members.

He disputed the CDC’s statement that orange or yellow color status identifies ships with reported infections. “Sometimes they are color coded on the CDC site and ‘under investigation’ because we have reported (cold-like illness) of guests or crew. Yellow or orange doesn’t always mean a COVID case,” he said.

Carnival, he said, fulfills its obligations under CDC guidelines by reporting infection data as required to public officials and keeping onboard guests informed. Crew members and guests who test positive — and their close contacts — are quarantined, regardless of vaccination status, he said.

“We are implementing protocols that exceed the CDC’s guidelines and will continue to adapt and evolve our procedures to respond to the public health situation,” he said.

That doesn’t go far enough for Leslie Wolowitz, who isn’t sure he wants to cruise again after the couple’s close encounter aboard the Celebrity Edge.

“I believe the number of cases should be publicly disclosed,” he said. “The cruise lines are responsible for our safety during the cruise. They are not giving cruises away. They are selling a vacation option. The public should be informed of the potential COVID risk before purchasing a cruise.”