Greensboro Reporter

COVID-19 apparently hasn’t fallen off the radar screen yet, especially when people are living with others in confined spaces.

A Greensboro woman was one who learned that firsthand. Kimberly Miles expected to celebrate coming out of isolation by taking a 16-day cruise and ended up on a ship in lockdown.

A Carnival Cruise ship docked last Tuesday in Seattle after more than 100 people aboard the ship tested positive for COVID-19, overwhelming the ship’s medical capabilities.

“My tests show that I was positive, and I couldn't believe it,” Miles told WFMY. Now, she’s back in isolation at a Seattle hotel. 

“You know, I said well, let me make sure. So, I waited another 30 minutes, and I had a second COVID test,” she recounted to the news station. “They told me to remain in the room, you know, I would need to be on the isolation, they will be coming to the room to test me to be sure. They gave me another test…and it didn't even take maybe two minutes, she said that you're definitely positive.”

The hotel quarantine follows five days of isolation on board the ship for her, and she said other passengers were confined to their quarters longer than that. Passengers were said to have had to wait hours for food and couldn’t get to see medical staff on the ship, and there were suggestions that early isolation efforts weren’t enough.

“We couldn't call anybody,” Miles said, saying that calls “would ring, ring, ring, and ring all day long."

A Carnival Cruise Line spokesperson said the company did its part. 

“All health and safety protocols were closely followed including vaccination requirements and pre-cruise testing of all guests,” the station reported the company as saying. “Additional measures were implemented during the voyage, including mask requirements for guests.”

Miles didn’t book the cruise unaware that the COVID virus is still out there.

“I knew the risks in going,” she said, “so, I don't blame Carnival for any of that. I made that choice, you know, to go.”