True Covid infection rates

[danv3]

On 5/5/2022 at 5:03 PM, Denny01 said:

Well, maybe Viking has a better cut, since I’be been told that we will be tested very day on our Viking cruise.

 

Wow, really?  What a bizarre step backwards.  All that level of testing serves to do is catch a lot of asymptomatic cases and ruin a lot of vacations.

[catspaw1]

On 5/5/2022 at 2:09 PM, OysterD said:

More than 0.3% of passengers before being 'red' seems a very low threshold, and one that I'm not in the slightest bit worried about.

 

Latest estimates based on large random population sampling that has been going on since start of pandemic here in the UK indicate roughly 4% of the population had covid last week. Life is carrying on completely as normal with zero restrictions and cases are still falling with very few ending in hospital BECAUSE of covid. 

 

Current case rates are probably similar if not higher than 4% in the US right now and if most cruise ships are reporting less than 0.3% infection rates then statistically that means you've got less chance of catching covid on a ship as you do staying at home. So good news!

 

Stop worrying everyone, time we just get on with life and enjoy cruising again!

 

The positivity rate in the NYC area is 25% right now! So yes very worrisome.

[PTC DAWG]

On 5/5/2022 at 5:03 PM, Denny01 said:

I’m not trying to be nasty, but what is the point? That there are a higher number of COVID-infected on board because there are those that don’t know they are infected? 

 

I’ll stick with the ‘reported’ numbers because those are the ones you can compare to other Lines or conditions that face the Same impacts of not knowing exact %’s.

 

Well, maybe Viking has a better cut, since I’be been told that we will be tested very day on our Viking cruise.

 

Boy, I’d love to see the outcry on this forum over That! On Viking, we apparently will be doing a lot of spitting into vials. Oh well.

 

Den 

Note to self, don’t cruise Viking. 

[PTC DAWG]

2 minutes ago, catspaw1 said:

The positivity rate in the NYC area is 25% right now! So yes very worrisome.

This doesn’t seem to agree.

 

https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/covid/covid-19-data.page

[catspaw1]

1 minute ago, PTC DAWG said:

This doesn’t seem to agree.

 

https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/covid/covid-19-data.page

This comes from a lab director of an NYU hospital.  The problem is many people are testing positive & are not reporting it. NYT tracker shows 700 new cases in nassau County yesterday a 7% increase from the prior day. Remember this does not include the unreported cases only.

[Jeremiah1212]

18 minutes ago, danv3 said:

 

Wow, really?  What a bizarre step backwards.  All that level of testing serves to do is catch a lot of asymptomatic cases and ruin a lot of vacations.

….And keep infections at bay so their already small crews can actually operate the cruise. 

[Aloha 1]

12 minutes ago, catspaw1 said:

The positivity rate in the NYC area is 25% right now! So yes very worrisome.

The current positivity rate in NYC is 6.57%. No increase in hospitalizations and declining deaths due to Covid. This from the NYC.gov health website.

Please take time to learn the real facts rather than succumb to Covid hysteria.

[AC Stew]

3 hours ago, zap99 said:

What is a fairly minor illness is taking over our lives. Drop testing and get back to normal.

 

If only Covid were a "minor illness!" Yes for some, but not for all. Probably at a future date, but not necessarily now, here, today. Of course, we're moving forward and personally, I'm optimistic. But sticking your head in the sand and opining that testing should be dropped is no solution. The virus will still be prevalent. Pretending that life is "normal" doesn't make it so.

 

Predictions are now for a major upturn in the coming months. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. In any event, since this conversation has migrated from specifically cruise-related, the thread might well be removed.

[PTC DAWG]

28 minutes ago, Aloha 1 said:

The current positivity rate in NYC is 6.57%. No increase in hospitalizations and declining deaths due to Covid. This from the NYC.gov health website.

Please take time to learn the real facts rather than succumb to Covid hysteria.

Don’t question the lab tech’s info..

[PTC DAWG]

17 minutes ago, AC Stew said:

 

If only Covid were a "minor illness!" Yes for some, but not for all. Probably at a future date, but not necessarily now, here, today. Of course, we're moving forward and personally, I'm optimistic. But sticking your head in the sand and opining that testing should be dropped is no solution. The virus will still be prevalent. Pretending that life is "normal" doesn't make it so.

 

Predictions are now for a major upturn in the coming months. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. In any event, since this conversation has migrated from specifically cruise-related, the thread might well be removed.

My life is and has been normal…any of us could get sick from something at any time. 

[catspaw1]

50 minutes ago, Aloha 1 said:

The current positivity rate in NYC is 6.57%. No increase in hospitalizations and declining deaths due to Covid. This from the NYC.gov health website.

Please take time to learn the real facts rather than succumb to Covid hysteria.

[Cruising89143]

We canceled an upcoming trip to Italy which was to be three weeks with one week spent aboard the Edge. We canceled not because of the fear of catching Covid but due to the possibility testing positive and being denied boarding of the ship or not being able to fly back to the U.S when we were scheduled. It wasn’t worth the risk for us. Once testing stops then we will plan again.

 

With that said, Covid is everywhere. You can pick it up at your local grocery store, restaurants or even a friend/relatives home. We just debarked the Navigator of the Seas yesterday. A second very recent four night cruise for us close to home here in So Cal. Was there Covid on board? Yes. We had crew members going missing after a few days and we did not see them again before we left the ship. I know that they had tested positive because of conversations with other crew that we know. With the exception of a few cases, we never wore a mask and enjoyed ourselves. We’re now back home and on a countdown to see if we get sick. Hopefully we don’t but it’s a flip of the coin. We’re vaccinated and double boosted. That’s all that we can do. 
 

We have no interest right now in cruising for more than seven nights or far away from home until the testing and quarantine stops but we will still cruise but just closer to home where we can jump in our car and be there in less than two hours. RCI has decided to stop testing on most B2B cruises. A step in the right direction IMHO and they still require guests twelve and older to be vaccinated and all guests must still present a negative test to board. There is no way to keep this virus off the ships. We need to learn to deal with it. 
 

Personally I don’t want to know how many guests or crew are currently in quarantine. There’s nothing to gain by knowing. If things get bad enough on board then I expect the Captain will tighten the health protocols. Until then we just go about our daily life and enjoy the experience. 

[catspaw1]

Just now, catspaw1 said:

50 minutes ago, Aloha 1 said:

The current positivity rate in NYC is 6.57%. No increase in hospitalizations and declining deaths due to Covid. This from the NYC.gov health website.

Please take time to learn the real facts rather than succumb to Covid hysteria.

Expand  

You are incorrect as that is only the reported cases- big difference. My NYU hospital director friend gives me the real scoop. & the 700 reported cases in nassau yesterday was directly from the NY times daily covid results site. My friend said you need to triple that rate to get an accurate count. 

[Mike07]

Celebrity's numbers are definitely suspicious.  I was on the April 23 through 30 sailing of the Apex.

 

First, drink delivery across the ship was slow and crew was also slow to clean dishes in the Oceanview buffet.  There were too few crew members for the number of passengers on the ship.  Furthermore, more senior people within the wait staff were running around in the buffet throughout the day.  The best day on the Apex was worse than the worse day I have seen on Princess or HAL.  I strongly suspect that more crew exists to staff the Oceanview, but they were all out sick.

 

Deck 3 staterooms --- both sides, were sealed off.  It could be a crew only air, but it made moving from the forward set of elevators to the rear dining rooms and guest services more inconvenient.  This lead me to believe that was the quarantine deck.

 

During the last day, when asked why there were no production shows, the Hotel Director simply said that unfortunately some of the entertainers were "sick".  Zero acknowledgement that COVID was a thing.  Crew also did not acknowledge COVID was a thing.  Upon reflection, the entire time, Celebrity staff just said, "Oh, crazy times..." and other very generic messages alluding to COVID, but not actually saying COVID.

 

Also, most of the passengers were not wearing facemasks, and it was a rather interesting phenomena to watch the number of dry coughs throughout the ship increase as the week went on.

 

Somebody was taken off in an ambulance on USVI.

 

The Celebrity Infinity hung around PEV, and I either heard from the crew or read here on CC that that's the Celebrity quarantine COVID ship. Numbers wise, I'm going to be egregious here, say 500 crew members were positive on the Apex, the faster Celebrity can get that crew to the Infinity, the faster they can legally report "Hey, we have no cases of crew with COVID on this ship."

 

It was honestly kind of hell on the ship, IMHO.

Edited May 7, 2022 by Mike07

[RichYak]

1 hour ago, AC Stew said:

Yes for some, but not for all.

Some? That's not a word I would use to describe an overwhelming majority.

[AC Stew]

cruisingator2: Thank-you for your thoughtful comments.

 

To clarify my own comments, I don't consider myself a Covid-hysteric. Just Covid-aware. And I certainly understand that we could catch a cold or flu just as easily as a Covid variant. We do go out more than before and we take all precautions as circumstances dictate. Vaxxed and boosted. We've cruised several times with and without masking protocols. The risks are always in the back of my mind.

 

However, at this point in time, with an incomplete knowledge of long term Covid effects, I do believe that testing is a responsible way to go. I wouldn't want to unknowingly spread the virus. I'd hope that others felt the same. 

 

RichYak: Yeah, I know. I was just trying to carefully parse my words in order to avoid being flamed.

 

Signing off here though; it's all been said before.

 

 

 

 

 

[Denny01]

3 hours ago, danv3 said:

 

Wow, really?  What a bizarre step backwards.  All that level of testing serves to do is catch a lot of asymptomatic cases and ruin a lot of vacations.

They’ve been doing this for an extended time, I assume since starting cruising.

 

You realize being ‘asymptomatic’ means you have COVID which isn’t making You ill, but you can then pass it on to anyone who could very well be adversely impacted. And yes, all onboard are vaccinated, but we are still working with a disease that some can contract even vaccinated, and be gravely impacted……used the word ‘grave’ for a reason. 

 

I’d hate to ruin someone’s vacation by making them ill/killing them….but what the heck, its a lower percentage so why not. 

 

Den

[Aloha 1]

4 hours ago, catspaw1 said:

You are incorrect as that is only the reported cases- big difference. My NYU hospital director friend gives me the real scoop. & the 700 reported cases in nassau yesterday was directly from the NY times daily covid results site. My friend said you need to triple that rate to get an accurate count. 

Anything other than official numbers is, at best , heresay. Let's assume your friend is correct. Where is the increase in deaths? Where is the increase in hospitalization. Neither of those events is happening, so even if the "true" number is triple, it only emphasizes that we are now dealing with an endemic disease and not a pandemic. 

 

Fortunately, we live in a country where you still have a choice to cruise or not to cruise. It is your decision not to cruise but I choose to continue cruising.

[Nursecruisers couple]

Once a passenger tests negative and gets onboard, whats to prevent them from becoming sick and never testing?  And couldn’t someone be asymptomatic, yet positive and never know?  Can Celebrity force a passenger to test?

[canderson]

7 minutes ago, Nursecruisers couple said:

Once a passenger tests negative and gets onboard, whats to prevent them from becoming sick and never testing?  And couldn’t someone be asymptomatic, yet positive and never know?  Can Celebrity force a passenger to test?

Nothing prevents that.

 

Yes, Celebrity can test whenever they choose to do so, but with limited resources, it's not at random.  Testing is performed aboard only for between B2B legs (for now, I hear RCCL quit doing that), those that present with symptoms, or those caught up in contact traces.

[catspaw1]

50 minutes ago, Aloha 1 said:

Anything other than official numbers is, at best , heresay. Let's assume your friend is correct. Where is the increase in deaths? Where is the increase in hospitalization. Neither of those events is happening, so even if the "true" number is triple, it only emphasizes that we are now dealing with an endemic disease and not a pandemic. 

 

Fortunately, we live in a country where you still have a choice to cruise or not to cruise. It is your decision not to cruise but I choose to continue cruising.

& you believe the government? I can tell you from my personal work experience at the government that they lie every single day! There is no large increase in deaths & hospitalizations, people still getting covid & many not aware they have it. People not getting as sick as before. My friend, who I have know for almost 50 years, communicates with the CDC on a daily basis. She I trust 200%, the government 20%. Covid is still lurking- let's be safe out there. I will wear my mask on the ship.

[Aloha 1]

6 minutes ago, catspaw1 said:

Covid is still lurking- let's be safe out there. I will wear my mask on the ship.

And as I said, that is your choice.  

Edited May 7, 2022 by Aloha 1

[Mike07]

54 minutes ago, Nursecruisers couple said:

Once a passenger tests negative and gets onboard, whats to prevent them from becoming sick and never testing?  And couldn’t someone be asymptomatic, yet positive and never know?  Can Celebrity force a passenger to test?

 

 

I don't know if Celebrity, or any cruise line, can force a passenger to be tested... but I suspect every single cruise line has verbiage in the passenger contract that they can confine a guest to their quarters.

 

 

[Mike07]

34 minutes ago, Aloha 1 said:

And as I said, that is your choice.  

 

 

Just be aware that if you do continue to cruise, I can factually state that I have zero confidence in Celebrity's health protocols or their interest in keeping a ship COVID free --- at least on the passenger level.  The crew level, Daddy USA Corporate may bring down the hammer on the folks from SEA and Eastern Europe.

 

There were definitely a lot of symptomatic passengers on the Apex, dry coughs and just being gross (e.g. not washing hands, coughing without covering their mouths in the buffet).

 

I made it through the cruise, with a mask, and have tested negative three times in the last week.  But yeah, it's been an interesting week trying to separate what Celebrity did right and wrong as a company, without letting the passengers on the ship influence my decision.

Edited May 7, 2022 by Mike07

[danv3]

7 hours ago, Denny01 said:

They’ve been doing this for an extended time, I assume since starting cruising.

 

You realize being ‘asymptomatic’ means you have COVID which isn’t making You ill, but you can then pass it on to anyone who could very well be adversely impacted. And yes, all onboard are vaccinated, but we are still working with a disease that some can contract even vaccinated, and be gravely impacted……used the word ‘grave’ for a reason. 

 

I’d hate to ruin someone’s vacation by making them ill/killing them….but what the heck, its a lower percentage so why not. 

 

Den

 

If this logic is followed, everyone should test before going to the movies, eating at a restaurant, or basically meeting with any person outside of their home.