On Wednesday, August 11, the Belize Tourism Board in a press release announced that the CCL-Carnival Cruise Line's ship Carnival Vista has a total of 27 COVID-positive cases. Of the infected, 26 are staff-crew plus one passenger.
According to an anonymous crew, the infected employees were Casino staff (10), dining staff (4), entertainment staff (4), guest services (2), photo services (2), housekeeping (1), bar services (1), plus 2 other (unspecified). All infected were quarantined in their cabins.
The outbreak (initially 23 crew) was registered after the ship departed from homeport Galveston Texas, on a 7-day Western Caribbean itinerary visiting Honduras (Roatan Island's Mahogany Bay/Aug 10), Belize (Belize City/Aug 11), and Mexico (Cozumel/Aug 12).
Note: On the previous voyage (July 31-Aug 7, with the same itinerary), in a statement, CCL announced a "small number of positive cases" but refused to state the exact number. The CDC started an investigation but also didn't state the number of infected.
The ship's current CDC color status is "Yellow".
According to the Belize Tourism Board's information, Carnival Vista carries a total of 4336 people (2895 passengers plus 1441 crew-staff), 99,98% of the crew and 96,5% of the passengers were vaccinated, all COVID-positive were vaccinated (asymptomatic or with mild symptoms) and in isolation onboard.
Close contacts were traced and tested, revealing no additional Coronavirus cases. Onboard safety protocols are enhanced by mandatory wearing masks indoors, crew using N95 respirators (masks with a very close facial fit and more efficient filtration), closing crew decks' social areas.
In Belize City, passengers were allowed to disembark for shore excursions. According to Belize Tourism Board's Coronavirus protocols, cruise ship disembarkation will be forbidden only if there are over 2% of COVID cases onboard (passengers+crew). In the case of Carnival Vista, the percentage was ~0,6%.
For more Carnival Vista accidents and incidents see the ship's CruiseMinus page.