After two years of alerting tourists about the risk of contracting Covid-19 onboard a cruise, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has finally dropped its risk advice on Wednesday.
“CDC’s decision to remove the travel health notice for cruise travel was based on the current state of the pandemic and overall decreases in COVID-19 cases onboard cruise ships over the past several weeks,” CDC spokesman David Daigle said in an email.
A Carnival Corp., representative called the action an “important step forward,” while Virgin Voyages said it “demonstrates the industry’s transition back to pre-pandemic operations.”
“While we feel this was a long time coming, we recognize this move as a demonstration of all of the hard work this industry has done to ensure that we’re offering the safest way to travel,” said Virgin Voyages chief executive Tom McAlpin.
“It’s refreshing to see them meet us where we’re at, and clearly where our consumers are at considering the major uptick in demand we’ve seen.”
The Cruise Lines International Association said earlier this year it was “dismayed” that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) still published travel health advisory for cruise ships.
The association applauded the decision Wednesday saying that it “recognizes the effective public health measures in place on cruise ships and begins to level the playing field, for the first time since March 2020, between cruise and similarly situated venues on land.
On the other hand, the agency has still reservations about cruise travel.
Officials have cautioned that travelers must assess their personal health risks before embarking on a cruise ship, just as they do for all other settings.
According to Johns Hopkins University, the decline in Covid 19 cases has slowed in recent weeks, and the current seven-day rolling average for daily new cases is roughly unchanged from two weeks ago.
On Sunday, “several” guests on a Princess Cruises ship returning from the Panama Canal tested positive for the virus.
All of the affected passengers exhibited little or no symptoms, and all crew members and passengers had been vaccinated.