Corrections & Clarifications: This story has been updated with an image of Celebrity Edge, the Celebrity Cruises ship set to be the first to sail from an American port.
On Saturday, Celebrity Cruises’ Celebrity Edge is set to be the first cruise ship to set sail from an American port with paying passengers in more than 15 months. Celebrity is a subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Group.
While not every passenger on board has had their COVID vaccines – two adults and 24 kids, about 1% of the total passenger count, are unvaccinated – Royal Caribbean Cruises Chairman and CEO Richard Fain said Friday that he’s confident that the cruise line is ready to get back to business.
“Fortunately, when you get to a very high level of vaccination, that really covers you,” Fain said during an interview with CNBC. “We do know that there will be cases on board cruise ships. I think the important thing is we make sure they’re isolated cases, and that they don’t become an outbreak. … If somebody gets sick, we know how to isolate them.”
The ship’s departure is set to come shortly after four passengers on two ships in Royal Caribbean Cruises’ lines – the Celebrity Millennium and more recently, the Adventure of the Seas – tested positive for COVID-19.
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