More than 175 people got sick with norovirus during a recent Celebrity Cruises\u2019 sailing, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
The agency said 152 of the Celebrity Summit ship\u2019s 2,144 passengers, as well as 25 crew members, reported being ill during its May 15 voyage, according to its website. Their main symptoms were diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal cramps and headache.
Celebrity did not immediately return USA TODAY’s request for comment.
The cruise line and ship\u2019s crew implemented heightened \u201ccleaning and disinfection procedures according to the ship\u2019s outbreak prevention and response plan,\u201d notified guests and encouraged practicing good hand hygiene and reporting illness, according to the agency. They also provided reports of gastrointestinal illness cases to the CDC\u2019s Vessel Sanitation Program twice a day during the outbreak investigation, among other steps.
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The incident marks the third norovirus outbreak on Celebrity ships the CDC has posted this year. The line previously saw outbreaks on its Celebrity Equinox and Celebrity Constellation vessels in March. On Celebrity Equinox, 136 passengers and crew reported being ill, while 96 did so on Celebrity Constellation.
Gastrointestinal illness at sea plummeted during the COVID-19 pandemic, but cases have ticked up again as the industry has rebounded.
While norovirus is frequently associated with cruise ships, Ben Lopman, a professor of epidemiology at Emory University\u2019s Rollins School of Public Health, told USA TODAY in February that those represent a “tiny minority of norovirus outbreaks.\u201d The vast majority take place in health care settings like nursing homes, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n