Guests and crew members test positive for COVID-19 aboard Princess Cruise ship

Passengers and crew members tested positive for COVID-19 aboard a 15-day Princess Cruise trip to the Panama Canal that returned Sunday to the Port of San Francisco.

Those affected aboard the ship the Ruby Princess were either asymptomatic or showed mild symptoms of COVID-19 and were isolated and quarantined, Princess Cruises said in a statement. The cruise line did not say how many guests and crew members tested positive, or at what point in the trip they did so.

The ship has since departed San Francisco for a 15-day cruise to Hawaii.

The cruise line requires guests to show a negative COVID-19 test and proof that they were fully vaccinated at least 14 days before the start of the trip. Vaccination rates for guests and crew members on the Ruby Princess were at 100%, Princess Cruises said.

The Port of San Francisco also requires that at least 95% of both passengers and crew members onboard are vaccinated.

The cruise line said guests with positive test results who had not completed the required isolation period had returned home or were provided hotel rooms for isolation and quarantine.

Princess Cruises suspended voyages for more than a year after COVID-19 outbreaks in 2020. Coronavirus cases remain relatively flat nationwide, but health experts are concerned about a potential rise linked to the new BA.2 COVID-19 variant.

The CDC was not immediately available for comment and a dashboard that tracks ships’ COVID-19 test positivity rates has not been updated since Thursday.