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A norovirus outbreak on a nearly two-week-long Holland America cruise ship sickened 152 passengers and more than a dozen crew members with symptoms like vomiting and diarrhea, health officials said.
Just under 6% of the 2,614 passengers onboard the MS Rotterdam reported falling ill with the misery-inducing illness on the 12-day voyage through the Panama Canal, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
In addition to the infected vacationers, 17 of the 969 personnel onboard also reported getting sick.
“During its current voyage, a number of guests onboard Rotterdam reported symptoms of gastrointestinal illness,” a spokesperson for the ocean liner told The Post.
“The cases were mostly mild and quickly resolved. We initiated enhanced sanitation protocols in conjunction with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to minimize further transmission, including continuous disinfection of the ship.”
The ill passengers and crew experienced diarrhea and vomiting on the nearly 1,000-foot-long ship that set sail on Feb. 2 from Fort Lauderdale in Florida, according to the health agency.
Since then, the cruise liner has isolated ailing passengers and workers, increased cleaning and disinfection measures to contain the outbreak and collected stool samples from those impacted for further testing.
The 13-deck ship is set to return to Florida on Friday following planned stops made in Jamaica, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and the Bahamas, according to CruiseMapper.
The illness was reported to the CDC’s vessel sanitation program on Feb. 7, according to the agency.
The Holland America outbreak marks the seventh sickness to sweep through a cruise ship in 2025 – less than two months into the year. Last year was the worst year for stomach virus outbreaks on cruises in more than a decade with 18 outbreaks reported.
Norovirus has been linked to three other outbreaks since the start of the year, the CDC reported.
The latest outbreak comes just a week after 160 passengers and 8 crew members experienced gastrointestinal symptoms aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship traveling from Tampa to the Western Caribbean.
The official cause of the outbreak remains unknown.
