After nearly 100 people aboard a 13-day Royal Caribbean cruise reportedly fell ill from norovirus, the ship docked Thursday at PortMiami.
The outbreak on the Serenade of the Seas, which departed from San Diego on Sept. 19, was reported to the CDC’s Vessel Sanitation Program on Sunday, Sept. 28.
“My symptoms started throughout the day, and I started feeling really funny in my stomach. “It only lasted like 36-48 hours,” said one passenger, Margie. “It was all good because they gave you free room service, and they took good care of you.”
As of Wednesday, 94 out of 1,874 passengers and four out of 883 crew members “reported being ill during the voyage” and noted that predominant symptoms included diarrhea and vomiting.
Passenger Bob Pettit said he was one of those who got sick: “I’m 87 years old, I’ve never been this sick in my life.”
It was smooth sailing for the majority of passengers.
“Everybody had a bucket, constantly cleaning everything,” said passenger Bob Ames. “Didn’t affect us one bit though.”
But other passengers noted how it was all hands on deck after the outbreak, with increased sanitary measures.
“They were serving us instead of us going right up and getting food. All the plates, silverware, salt and pepper were restricted,” Leslie Nilsen said. “When I say cleaning, they started on the bottom and worked to the top and then you would see them coming down again. All over, everywhere.”
“As soon as you left your table for breakfast or for, for dinner or whatever, they cleaned it, they wiped down the chairs. They’re using a hydrogen peroxide solution that would kill the virus,” passenger Laurie Ames said. “So yeah, we felt safe.”
Passengers said they were asked to disembark early so that the crew could begin a full sanitation and sterilization of the ship.
The ship was expected to depart later Thursday to Panama on a 7-day cruise.
This is a developing story. Refresh for updates.
from NBC Chicago https://ift.tt/LgWHsuw
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