Another Cruise Ship, Another Covid Outbreak

Well, it appears history is repeating itself. Long ago in March 2020, we had our first COVID cruise disaster, and with Omicron surging across the country, the latest outbreak has just hit a Holland America ship bound for Mexico. Thankfully, we have a little more information a year later, and a majority of the population is now vaccinated. However, COVID on board a massive floating hotel where people are in extremely close quarters is not a good situation regardless of vaccination status.

According to Mexican authorities, 21 crew members aboard the Holland America ship Koningsdam tested positive for COVID-19 as the ship arrived in Puerto Vallarta on December 23rd. Apparently, they were only showing mild symptoms and all the crew was in fact vaccinated. Because of the outbreak, guests were not permitted to disembark in Puerto Vallarta upon arrival, and the ship was forced to turn back to San Diego, where passengers were able to leave the ship and return home.

Cruises were allowed to resume just two months ago in the Port of San Diego after an exceedingly long pause due to the pandemic, bringing a necessary boost to the local tourism economy. It is yet to be determined how cruises will proceed with the spike in positive cases due to the omicron variant.