Two employees on Royal Caribbean's newest ship - Odyssey of the Seas have tested COVID positive.
According to a spokesman for the shipbuilder Meyer Werft (shipyard in Papenburg Germany) the affected and their contacts had been quarantined. The remaining 500+ employees are not allowed to leave the cruise vessel.
The port medical service set Odyssey of the Seas in Bremerhaven for the time being. It is still unclear when the passenger liner can take off for the planned North Sea trials.
According to Meyer Werft, the positive COVID cases were already known on Wednesday, March 3, and confirmed with PCR tests on Thursday. The company's spokesman couldn't say whether the infected had been brought off-board in the meantime.
So far there are no further infections. The shipboard team is tested daily. The German authorities are still in consultation about how to proceed.
Odyssey OTS was transferred from Papenburg over Ems River towards the North Sea last weekend. Before the passage, all onboard employees had been tested negative several times, the shipyard spokesman added.
For more Odyssey of the Seas accidents and incidents see the ship's CruiseMinus page.