On Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ended the Cruise Ship COVID-19 Program. The program includes some measures to minimize the spread of coronavirus on cruises. Cruise lines are required to screen all passengers and crew before boarding or disembarking in the United States and follow specific quarantine procedures. Travel companies are now expected to craft their own COVID-19 programs.
The CDC website states:
“CDC has worked closely with the travel industry, state, territory and local health authorities, as well as federal and port partners to provide a safer and healthier environment for travelers. guests and crew. Cruise ships have access to guidance and tools to manage their own COVID-19 mitigation programs.”
CDC will also stop reporting cases as there will no longer be uniform testing programs across all participating cruise lines.
Notoriously, cruise ships have been a breeding ground for coronavirus outbreaks throughout the pandemic. Diamond Princess had one of the first major COVID outbreaks in February 2020. Of the 3,711 people on board the ship operated by Princess Cruises, 712 tested positive with 14 deaths.
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It is expected that cruise operators will create COVID protocols to increase the number of passengers on their ships. The world’s three largest cruise lines, Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian, all have stock price increase with CDC announcement of the program ends. Azamara, a Miami-based travel agency, has announced that it will end its start COVID-19 testing requirement on July 25. Azamara President Carol Cabezas said, “The easing of our testing policy marks a step in the right direction towards a return to normalcy for the travel and flight industry.”
Azamara will still require all passengers 12 years of age and older to be vaccinated, but I’m not entirely sure the cruise ships won’t turn into floating petri dishes. In the last two weeks of 2021, there are more than 5,000 confirmed cases on the cruise ship.
