The norovirus has hit the Celebrity Mercury with a vengeance.    The Mercury returned to its home port of Charleston today, a day early, and the next cruise will be delayed by two days for an extensive top-to-bottom cleaning and sanitizing of the ship.  This will be the third time in three cruises that the ship has been taken out of service for cleaning.

More than 20% of passengers on Celebrity cruise ship are sick

Three cruises in a row have been hit by serious outbreaks of the virus on the same ship.  On the Feb. 15-26 sailing, 411 passengers fell ill or more than 22% of the 1,830 passengers aboard. On the Feb. 26-March 8 voyage more than 10% were stricken. On the most recent trip 369 or slightly over 20% of the passengers have reported symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea.   To put this in perspective, according to the Center for Disease Control, only two cruise ships calling on the US experienced an outbreak of illness that affected more than 10% of passengers last year, and no ship experienced an outbreak that came close to 20% of passengers.  cruise lines are required to report any outbreak in which more than 3% of the passengers report symptoms of the virus.

Celebrity says that they believe passengers are bringing the illness onto the ship. News outlets in South Carolina have been reporting the state is experiencing a higher than normal number of norovirus cases this winter.