Is there a way to find out how many covid cases are on Carnival ships now?

[cruisr]

I am probably going to say “no” but thought I’d ask.  I know just about every ship on every line is in the orange code on CDC site but just curious if other then reports from people onboard is there any way of telling?

[mz-s]

No, nobody releases numbers because they're not required to. We just know it's at least 0.3% of guests and crew I think is the CDC threshold to move to orange.

Edited July 12, 2022 by mz-s

[BlerkOne]

No, and it seems many people don't test until after the cruise, so it is likely there are a lot more cases on ships than even the cruise lines know about.

[csm5986142]

I honestly don't think the cruise lines even know because so many people don't test until they get back home (me included - tested positive the day I got off the ship and got home).  But Carnival would have only been aware of people they tested onboard.  

[2wheelin]

It's about the same as anywhere else and changes weekly

[groundloop]

It seems that the cruise industry doesn't really want those numbers to be known.

 

And I wonder how long until this thread disappears.

[BlerkOne]

1 hour ago, 2wheelin said:

It's about the same as anywhere else and changes weekly

Pure speculation since we don't have the numbers, however unlike anywhere else, vaccinations and testing are part of cruising and staff are masked and tested regularly. Anywhere else there are too many covid deaths daily, compared with approximately 0 on cruise ships.

 

Cruise ships are required by law to report all illnesses to the CDC who does occasionally release numbers, but not ship specific numbers for covid.

[JT1962]

The only way they would know would be to test everyone prior to letting them off the ship. That appears to be what is happening in Australia, least on one ship:

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11007377/amp/Coronavirus-cruise-ship-nightmare-100-passengers-stay-ship-test-negative.html

Edited July 12, 2022 by JT1962

[TheSeagoer]

How long is a piece of rope

[pe4all]

This is info CCL will never let out.  I definitely know there was covid on our ship when we sailed (6/28-7/6) because I heard some of the medical staff talking when they were at the buffet.  No idea how many.  Crew is supposedly tested weekly.  Lots of coughing and sneezing by passengers by end of week.  And on our Facebook page for our sailing there are many people who have tested positive in the days after they came home. Luckily my family of 3 have been negative - but we wore masks indoors and even outdoors in crowds,  used the stairs, used a lot of Purell, and ate outside as much as possible.

[jsglow]

There's no avoiding Covid living any kind of reasonable life. These Omicron strains are simply too infectious.  Essentially all of us have been naturally exposed by now.  The good news is these strains remain less virulent relative to the original seemingly following the billion years pattern of previous viruses.  All one can do is take the necessary steps (vaccination) to minimize the prospects for a serious infection requiring hospitalization.  And over time the human race's collective wonderful immune system combined with modern medicine will render this thing essentially moot.

[crewsweeper]

So-called "natural immunity" or "herd immunity" for COVID variants may take longer than expected @jsglow.  But you're correct in that these variants are too infectionous.  BA.5 has a RO value of 18.6 which is in line with measles.  But thus far most cases are milder than the original or Delta. Vacinated, boosted, wearing masks, inside or outside, doesn't matter.  If you're in a crowd for any period of time or around someone who my have it, it's a high probability you'll catch it too.

 

It's NOT that ships don't want to release number cases, they  do.  But testing positive after a cruise is not contact traced.  And many doing home tests don't report to local health.  Maybe employer or immediate family or on FB.  If local health agencies don't hear about cases, no public information will be available.

[Purvis1231]

It appears that the new strains are so contagious and changing so rapidly the idea of contact tracing, natural immunity, herd immunity, isolation, and maybe even vaccination mean nothing. I know several people who are on their third infection by now and no telling how many people actually have it at any given time. We cruise last month, and we only know of two families that reported infections after the cruise but of course a lot may have just stayed silent about it. 

 

I would like to know how many people test positive before a cruise. This might be a more important measure. 

[jam19872016]

If anyone is interested in going through the hassle, you can submit a freedom of information enquiry to the CDC and you will be provided with this information.

 

Be prepared to go through a lot of red tape, but you will eventually be given the information in a non user friendly format (one giant .gif or pdf if I recall)

 

This was posted in the NCL forms but was either a violation of CC rules or the feds asked CC to pull it down. Either way the post went poof.

 

IMHO, even though nobody asked, If you are at all worried about covid on a cruise you should not go. I'm not judging your concern, but a cruise is no place for someone with that concern.

 

Everyone else, go have fun. The water's fine!

[BlerkOne]

16 minutes ago, jam19872016 said:

If anyone is interested in going through the hassle, you can submit a freedom of information enquiry to the CDC and you will be provided with this information.

 

Be prepared to go through a lot of red tape, but you will eventually be given the information in a non user friendly format (one giant .gif or pdf if I recall)

 

This was posted in the NCL forms but was either a violation of CC rules or the feds asked CC to pull it down. Either way the post went poof.

 

IMHO, even though nobody asked, If you are at all worried about covid on a cruise you should not go. I'm not judging your concern, but a cruise is no place for someone with that concern.

 

Everyone else, go have fun. The water's fine!

Actually the CDC has released such information in the past, but feel free to waste time and money. Posting was likely a copyright violation.

[jam19872016]

Just now, BlerkOne said:

Actually the CDC has released such information in the past, but feel free to waste time and money. Posting was likely a copyright violation.

As a work created by a government agency it would be in the public domain. No copyright.

 

Also due to the intentionally difficult file format provided it could not be posted. Instead the user was taking the time to manually type the information into a common format and answering specific sailings while working on the file.

 

Agree that it is a huge waste of time to seek out the information, just answering the original question of is there any way.... yes there is but be prepared to go down the government rabbit hole to get the information.

 

I also feel the numbers, however bad they are, mean nothing since you can't get a similar list for any other recreation and all those who got sick were consenting adults or children of consenting adults who chose to go knowing the risks.

 

Concealing those numbers sort of gives an out to those who come back upset they got sick. It is a real possibility and if that worries you this is not the time to go.

 

I look forward to the day people stop coming to these boards posting they got sick like they didn't check a box acknowledging that risk when they signed their cruise contract. 

 

/rant

 

Sorry for going off the rails a bit lol.

[Hoosierpop]

CDC and Carnival would only have the number of positive tests Carnival did themselves. Which would undercount things by a large margin. Not because anyone is hiding things. Just the number of people who tested themselves and didn’t report it. So any number would be meaningless.

 

In the meantime, cruising the next two weeks, so can worry about all that later.

[BlerkOne]

11 minutes ago, jam19872016 said:

As a work created by a government agency it would be in the public domain. No copyright.

I seriously doubt the government asked them to remove.

 

11 minutes ago, jam19872016 said:

 

I look forward to the day people stop coming to these boards posting they got sick like they didn't check a box acknowledging that risk when they signed their cruise contract. 

 

I agree and a little surprised the government doesn't require warning labels on cruises, as if the people who need them are capable of reading. There should, however, also be penalties for people who knowingly get on cruise ships when sick or have reason to believe they are sick.

[jam19872016]

13 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

I seriously doubt the government asked them to remove.

I doubt it too. I said that a bit tounge in cheek. I wanted to tread lightly with what I think really happened to avoid having my own post go poof.

 

16 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

 

I agree and a little surprised the government doesn't require warning labels on cruises, as if the people who need them are capable of reading. There should, however, also be penalties for people who knowingly get on cruise ships when sick or have reason to believe they are sick.

Never a fan of more government regulation but I'm not sure it would help much anyway. Most cases are asymptomatic. I'm sure there are some who are boarding knowing they are sick but doubt it is a widespread issue.

[ldubs]

1 hour ago, jam19872016 said:

 

 

I also feel the numbers, however bad they are, mean nothing since you can't get a similar list for any other recreation and all those who got sick were consenting adults or children of consenting adults who chose to go knowing the risks.

 

Concealing those numbers sort of gives an out to those who come back upset they got sick. It is a real possibility and if that worries you this is not the time to go.

 

I look forward to the day people stop coming to these boards posting they got sick like they didn't check a box acknowledging that risk when they signed their cruise contract. 

 

/rant

 

Sorry for going off the rails a bit lol.

 

I does mean something.   Knowing the positive rate might help some decide if they want to participate.  In fact, it is hard to know the risk without this kind of basic information.  Additionally, sharing a Covid experience following a cruise seems very relevant.  After all Covid is still an issue.  It does not mean the person wasn't aware of the risk.   I don't get why that would be something to rant about.    

[mz-s]

14 minutes ago, ldubs said:

 

I does mean something.   Knowing the positive rate might help some decide if they want to participate.  In fact, it is hard to know the risk without this kind of basic information.  Additionally, sharing a Covid experience following a cruise seems very relevant.  After all Covid is still an issue.  It does not mean the person wasn't aware of the risk.   I don't get why that would be something to rant about.    

 

There is no routine testing after cruises so there is no way to know.

[ldubs]

1 minute ago, mz-s said:

 

There is no routine testing after cruises so there is no way to know.

 

Agree.  Because data that is collected is not released and a lot of positive counts are never captured.   But that isn't what my post was about.  

[mz-s]

30 minutes ago, ldubs said:

 

Agree.  Because data that is collected is not released and a lot of positive counts are never captured.   But that isn't what my post was about.  

you mentioned positive rate. There is no routine testing of guests. So there is no positive rate. Guests are only tested if they show symptoms, at least on carnival. Crew are another matter of course. Were you talking about crew positive rate?

[jam19872016]

2 hours ago, ldubs said:

 

I does mean something.   Knowing the positive rate might help some decide if they want to participate.  In fact, it is hard to know the risk without this kind of basic information.  Additionally, sharing a Covid experience following a cruise seems very relevant.  After all Covid is still an issue.  It does not mean the person wasn't aware of the risk.   I don't get why that would be something to rant about.    

But it doesn't. If you are at all concerned with the positive rate, be it .3 or 2.3, you should not be planning a cruise vacation at this time. Period.

 

Case rates will raise and fall at the same time they do on land. Likely with higher numbers because yes, viruses do thrive in a cruise ship environment. Until covid is out of our daily vocabulary for at least a year, you should not be choosing this as your mode of vacation.

 

That may mean you need to sit it out for years to come. Or you could chose to live your life. But stop trying to have it both ways.

 

It is as relevant as saying my cabin was smaller than what I expect at a hotel. No kidding. Why would we need post after post after post complaining about that? We know the cabins are small and we chose to go anyway.

 

Same thing, we know covid is a risk and we went anyway then posted a complaint. Most of these posts are not presented as informational. They are omg woe is me cruise lines did not protect me and now my whole family is sick. 

 

It's a harsh reality, but cruising may not be for everyone right now, and that is okay.

[ldubs]

1 hour ago, mz-s said:

you mentioned positive rate. There is no routine testing of guests. So there is no positive rate. Guests are only tested if they show symptoms, at least on carnival. Crew are another matter of course. Were you talking about crew positive rate?

 

The point of my original reply was to disagree that a positive rate should be considered unimportant, especially for the reasons given.  I also didn't understand the criticism of people who comment about catching covid on board.  

 

No I wasn't talking about crew.  I'll expand my earlier response, which by the way I thought was in agreement with you.  The counts of passengers w/symptoms testing positive on board is captured.  That rate of positives is not shared with us as far as I know. Would a positive rate based on that count be accurate?  No.  It it is fairly safe to say that it would be understated because the counts for a lot of positive self tests, those who hide symptoms, and those who test positive after the cruise are never captured.