A passenger on the cruise ship Carnival has died of coronavirus after testing positive for COVID-19 while sailing from Texas to Belize, the first reported passenger death due to the virus since it was allowed in the industry. of cruise lines resume travel in June.
The woman had left Galveston on the Carnival Vista cruise on July 31, a company spokesman confirmed to HuffPost, but later had to be medically evacuated from the ship due to a COVID-19 health emergency, she said. the Belize Tourism Council statement.
The passenger, who was reported by The New York Times to be a 77-year-old Oklahoma woman, was diagnosed with the virus and later returned to the United States where she died.
According to a GoFundMe page that belonged to the woman’s family, she was first admitted to a Belize hospital and put on a ventilator for several days before being returned to the United States and hospitalized in Tulsa on August 6.
DANIEL SLIM via Getty Images The Carnival Vista cruise is seen in Miami, Florida. A woman who traveled by boat from Texas to Belize died after falling ill with coronavirus on the ship.
“I was very excited to make her first trip outside the United States,” the page says. He added that funds were being raised to help pay for medical and travel expenses incurred because his health insurance does not cover health care outside the U.S.
A Carnival spokesman expressed his condolences to the family and said the woman is unlikely to have the virus on the boat.
“Unfortunately, there is a fair amount of misinformation about the circumstances of this matter,” the company said in a statement. “The guest almost certainly did not hire COVID on our ship and received expert medical assistance on board and was eventually evacuated from Belize after providing a resource to his family.”
On August 9, several days after the woman’s return to the United States, Belize stopped allowing cruise passengers to disembark from other countries unless they gave negative tests for the coronavirus, regardless of their vaccination status, according to the Belize Tourism Board.
Two days after the rule went into effect, the tourism board reported that the returning Carnival Vista, with a new payload of 2,895 guests and 1,441 Texas crew members, arrived with 27 positive coronavirus cases on board. All but one were with crew members. The board added that all those who tested positive had been vaccinated against the virus.
Carnival Cruise Line on August 14 began requiring all passengers, regardless of vaccination status, to be tested for the virus within three days of boarding. Over the weekend, the company also announced that it will require passengers to prove vaccination unless they are under the age of 12 or are adults with certain medical conditions. The decision comes after the Bahamas last week issued an emergency order banning cruise ships from entering its ports unless all passengers over the age of 12 have been vaccinated.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday informed people at increased risk of serious complications of COVID-19 to avoid traveling on cruises, regardless of their vaccination status, amid reports of coronavirus outbreaks on ships.
Those who are not fully vaccinated should also avoid cruise travel and all passengers should be tested for the virus before and after the trip, regardless of vaccination status, the CDC advises.
“The virus that causes COVID-19 spreads easily among people near ships aboard ships and the chances of getting COVID-19 on cruises are high,” the CDC said.
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