Almost 500 individuals are currently sick on on Royal Caribbean cruise ship

The quantity of individuals hit with a gastrointestinal sickness on a Royal Caribbean International cruise ship has swelled to almost 500, an organization representative said Friday.

The expansion to 475 individuals comes a day after the organization said 277 travelers on the Oasis of the Seas had at first fallen sick.

Travelers on the cruise ship — which as indicated by Royal Caribbean’s website is a 1,187-foot long vessel and was voted the best cruise ship 2014 by Travel Weekly readers — began feeling sick after the ship withdrew from Port Canaveral in Brevard County, Florida, on Sunday.

The cruise liner was booked to sail through the Caribbean before coming back to Florida on Sunday. The Oasis of the Seas will presently arrive back at Port Canaveral on Saturday. The majority of the ship’s travelers will get a refund due to the outbreak.

Traveler Shawn Popeleski told the Orlando Sentinel that they were told by means of a shipwide declaration Friday that the outbreak is “most likely” related with norovirus.

As per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, norovirus is a kind of gastrointestinal illness and is “very contagious.” You can get it from individuals infected by it and by touching contaminated surfaces or eating or drinking contaminated food and water.

Indications incorporate stomach pains, nausea and diarrhea, as per the CDC. In spite of the fact that it is highly transmissible, the illness is “relatively infrequent on cruise ships,” the CDC states.