Investigation Update on the Caribbean Princess

Cruise Line: Princess Cruises

Cruise Ship: Caribbean Princess

Voyage Dates: February 2–16, 2020

Number of passengers who have reported being ill during the voyage out of total number of passengers onboard: 371 of 3,035 (12.2%)

Number of crew who have reported being ill during the voyage out of total number of crew onboard: 32 of 1,161 (2.8%)

Predominant symptoms: vomiting and diarrhea

Causative agent: norovirus

Actions: In response to the outbreak, Princess Cruises and crew aboard the ship reported the following actions:

• Increasing cleaning and disinfection procedures according to their outbreak prevention and response plan.
• Making daily Captain’s announcements and distributing written health advisories to passengers.
• Sending daily reports of gastrointestinal illness cases to VSP.
• Collecting stool specimens from passenger and/or crew gastrointestinal illness cases and sending specimens for testing.

The ship will return to port on February 13 for a super sanitation cleaning. A VSP investigation team will meet the ship at port to assist with investigating the outbreak and to monitor the ship’s response procedures. The ship will resume its planned itineraries on February 16.

Note: The gastrointestinal illness cases reported are totals for the entire voyage and do not represent the number of active (symptomatic) gastrointestinal cases at any given port of call or at disembarkation.

Learn how passengers can protect themselves with these tips for healthy cruising.