with the port of miami with more. good morning. >> good morning. just like in every state across the country the highly infectious omicron variant surged on cruise ships in despite requirements all crew and passengers vaccinated and everyone show a negative covid test before they even board the ship. a policy which expires saturday. according to the cdc the past two weeks have shown a 30-fold increase in positive cases on the big vessels. in the first two weeks of december 160 positives. second two weeks of december that number shot up to 5,000. stewart has seen a dozen cruises since last summer when the industry resumed sailing after the pandemic froze it for more than a year. he says he feels safer at sea than on land. >> the occurrences of covid on board ships is lower on a ship than what we're seeing on land.