A woman is dead after testing positive for COVID-19 aboard a Carnival Cruise ship.
The 77-year-old woman was a passenger on the Carnival Vista according to NBC's Today. She was one of 27 people on board who tested positive for the virus as the ship sailed to the Caribbean in late July. The 26 other people were crewmembers.
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The fatality is the first to happen on a cruise ship since Carnival began resuming voyages. Carnival required all passengers to be vaccinated or be tested frequently throughout the voyage.
The ship sailed out of Galveston Texas on July 31.
News sources report the unidentified female passenger was traveling with her family when she had difficulty breathing just four days into the eight-day voyage.
When the ship reached port in Belize, the woman was hospitalized and then put on a ventilator.
She was transported to a hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma for treatment but later died on August 14, news outlets report.
Carnival Cruise says it is unlikely the people who tested positive contracted the virus on the ship.
"We are very sorry to hear about the death of a guest who sailed on Carnival Vista," Carnival said in a statement. "The guest almost certainly did not contract COVID on our ship, and she was assisted with expert medical care on board and was ultimately evacuated from Belize after we provided a resource to her family. We have continued to provide support to her family and are not going to add to their sadness by commenting further."
On the day the woman died, Carnival updated its COVID-19 policy to require masks and COVID testing for both unvaccinated and vaccinated passengers.
“In an abundance of caution and in response to the increasing number of cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. caused by the Delta variant, we are updating our protocols and requirements regarding pre-cruise testing for fully vaccinated guests and our onboard mask policy. We expect these measures will be temporary and will adjust our protocols based on the advice of our medical and public health advisors," said Carnival.