Eleven Guests Test Positive on Jewel of the Seas for COVID-19, Bringing Total to At Least 50 in Last Thirty Days – Cruise Law News

This morning the Jewel of the Seas returned to the ships home port of Limassol, Cyprus after a one week cruise around the Greek Isles. Yesterday, the ship conducted a routine test for the COVID-19 virus of all of the 1,100 or so guests on the ship. According to a crew member on the cruise ship who wishes to continue to remain anonymous, eleven passengers tested positive for the virus.

In addition to these guests, the whole team (nine) of the ships dancers are under quarantine on board.

Eleven (11) Guests Test Positive on Jewel of the Seas for #COVID19, Bringing Total to at Least Fifty (50) in Last Thirty Days https://t.co/nU5HEZVR0j @RoyalCaribbean #JeweloftheSeas #cruise ship. pic.twitter.com/TOFlUrfsuq

James (Jim) Walker (@CruiseLaw) October 23, 2021

In the last thirty days, we have learned that there have been a total of around fifty positive COVID-19 cases of passengers on this same cruise ship. More specifically, on the cruise which departed from Limassol on September 25th, we reported that there was a total of twenty-one cases involving guests on the Royal Caribbean ship.

On October 2nd, we reported that there were twelve guests who tested positive on the next cruise on the Jewel.

There have been at least a handful of positive cases involving guests on each cruise on this ship this summer. The total does not include the number of crew members who tested positive for the virus over the past month.

Royal Caribbean is continuing to take aggressive steps to try and reduce the number of COVID-19 cases involving its crew members and guests on this ship after experiencing a higher than normal number of positive virus cases in the last several weeks.

Eighty percent of guests on the ship have been from UK which is still experiencing a high number of COVID-19 outbreaks. BBC News recently published an article titled Covid: Why are UK cases so high? which explained that COVID-19 cases in the U.K. have soared to to more than 50,000 cases a day, although it is less likely that the infected will end up in the hospital or die.

The Jewel of the Seas will be re-positioned in mid-November to South Florida where it will be sailing on a Western Caribbean itinerary of cruises from five to ten days long. The ship will sail from Miami until mid-May of 2022 when it will be repositioned and sail from Amsterdam. The company obviously wishes to reduce the number of positive virus cases it has been experiencing before it begins sailing out of U.S. waters where it will fall within the jurisdiction of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

There have been a number of sailings of Royal Caribbean crusie ships where at least a dozen or more passengers and crew became infected with COVID-19. Ten days ago, we reported that fifteen crew members on the Allure of the Seas tested positive for COVID-19.

Two days ago, a crew member on Royal Caribbeans Spectrum of the Seas tested positive after several tests. The ship wa scheduled to depart from Hong Kong but the local health department intervened and prohibited the ship from leaving port. Several thousands of guests had to depart the ship and the cruise was cancelled.

One RCCL crew member tests positive. Spectrum of the Seas' cruise scheduled for yesterday canceled. Compare that to the fifteen RCCL crew members on the Allure of the Seas who tested positive for COVID-19 ten days ago. Ship still sailed. https://t.co/xZ3daf8xba pic.twitter.com/2gr8gcbegS

James (Jim) Walker (@CruiseLaw) October 22, 2021

Royal Caribbean, like most cruise lines, does not voluntarily disclose the number of guests and crew members who are infected during cruises on its ships, althought this basic information is vital to understanding the risk of infection which a consumer encounters while cruising.

This afternoon the Jewel of the Seas set sail with approximately 1,200 guests on another week-long cruise around the Greek Isles.

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October 26, 2021 Update: A guest on the Jewel of the Seas commented on Twitter that he was extremely disappointed with the standard of entertainment on Jewel of the Seas this week and that Royal Caribbean had the audacity to show a movie in the theatre . . . It appears that the quarantine of the ships dancers is having an effect on the type of entertainment which the ship is able to offer its guests?

Perhaps the fact that all of the #cruise ship's dancers were quarantined for #COVID19 had something to do with this? / @RoyalCaribbean Jewel of the Seas https://t.co/JygcsiJ6WO

James (Jim) Walker (@CruiseLaw) October 26, 2021

Image credit: Jewel of the Seas Royal Caribbean

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Eleven Guests Test Positive on Jewel of the Seas for COVID-19, Bringing Total to At Least 50 in Last Thirty Days - Cruise Law News