Princess Cruise Line’s star ship the Ruby Princess is under scrutiny by the Centers for Disease Control after another COVID outbreak onboard with 37 new cases logged as it docked last weekend. That follows 143 cases among passengers on April 11 and 73 infections on March 27. The Ruby Princess was the site of one of the pandemic’s earliest outbreaks at sea. It sparked a major probe by officials in Australia, who slammed the local government’s decision to let all 2,700 passengers disembark in Sydney in March 2020 without sufficient screening. At least 900 people later tested positive and 28 died. The CDC said Thursday it started an investigation based on the number of cases. “Covid has unfortunately become a part of normal life, and the Princess, along with the entire cruise industry, continues to operate with measures that exceed any other commercial setting,” Princess Lines said in a statement, noting that the infections were caught after passengers disembarked, not on board. The cruise company requires that its staff be vaccinated.
