RCI-Royal Caribbean is moving COVID-positive crew to two of its out-of-service liners - Rhapsody of the Seas and Vision of the Seas, to quarantine as the crisis continues to surge.
The company confirmed the crew transfers and noted that the logic behind the move was to keep their crew and ships "as healthy as possible."
RCI transferred the crew from various liners deployed in the Caribbean and has been completing the crew transfers for ~3 weeks.
The number of the transferred crew has not been specified. Once they finish their quarantine period, the employees are moved back to their assigned boats.
On Wednesday, January 5, RCI transferred ~100 asymptomatic/mildly symptomatic crew to Rhapsody OTS.
The transferred crew, who are all fully vaccinated, are in isolation and are being monitored by the onboard medical team. After each crew completes their 10-day quarantine, they return to the assigned liners, RCI said.
17 of RCI's operational vessels are currently under investigation by the USA's CDC and code-classified "Yellow" (agency's cruise ship color status list).
Rhapsody OTS and Vision OTS (both crew-only for now) are currently classified as "Orange" and being monitored by the CDC.