27 Covid Cases Reported aboard Carnival Vista in Belize

(CNN) - More than two dozen cases of Covid-19 have been detected among crew and passengers aboard a Carnival cruise ship, according to the Belize Tourism Board.

One passenger and 26 crew members tested positive prior to calling on the port in Belize City, a news release from the tourism board said. All 27 infected individuals are vaccinated and most are asymptomatic, according to the release.

Belize tourism officials met virtually with Carnival Vista officials on Tuesday to discuss the situation before passengers disembarked in Belize City.

During that meeting, "the team at Carnival noted that all positive cases have been isolated and contact tracing has ended with no additional positive cases found, and that the infected crew and passenger do not pose a threat to guests, crew or frontline workers in Belize," according to the tourism board's news release.

Passengers were allowed to disembark in Belize for normal shore excursions with one additional precaution: All guests with a negative Covid-19 test were required to provide proof to Belize officials, with random testing for those without proof.

Carnival said in a statement that it is managing a "small number" of Covid cases on the current Carnival Vista voyage but declined to specify exactly how many.

A "small number of positive cases" was also reported by the cruise line on the previous sailing of Carnival Vista out of Galveston, Texas. That prompted the company to institute its new fleet-wide mask rule for all passengers in certain indoor spaces a few days early on that Carnival Vista sailing.

All unvaccinated guests aboard the current sailing were set to be tested on Friday, prior to disembarking on Saturday, Carnival said. The company also randomly tests a large percentage of its vaccinated crew on a rotating basis and has tested more than 900 crew members since last Saturday, according to its statement.