More than 175 people fall ill in Celebrity Cruises norovirus outbreak

More than 175 people got sick with norovirus during a recent Celebrity Cruises’ sailing, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

The agency said 152 of the Celebrity Summit ship’s 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.

"The health and safety of our guests, crew and communities we visit are our top priority," a Celebrity spokesperson said in an emailed statement. "To maintain the highest levels of health onboard our ships, we implement rigorous safety and cleaning procedures, many far exceeding public health guidelines. Combined, these efforts allow us to maintain some of the lowest levels of community spread."

The cruise line and ship’s crew implemented heightened “cleaning and disinfection procedures according to the ship’s outbreak prevention and response plan,” 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’s 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’s Rollins School of Public Health, told USA TODAY in February that those represent a "tiny minority of norovirus outbreaks.” The vast majority take place in health care settings like nursing homes, he said.

Nathan Diller is a consumer travel reporter for USA TODAY based in Nashville. You can reach him at ndiller@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: More than 175 Celebrity Cruises passengers, crew contract norovirus