The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued an advisory urging all travelers, both vaccinated and unvaccinated, to avoid going on cruise ships amid the Omicron-driven surge in coronavirus cases.
‘Even fully vaccinated travelers may be at risk for getting and spreading Covid-19 variants,’ the CDC said in a bulletin on Thursday afternoon.
‘It is especially important that travelers who are at an increased risk of severe illness from Covid-19 avoid travel on cruise ships, including river cruises, worldwide, regardless of vaccination status.’
The CDC stated that its travel health notice upgrade from level 3 to level 4 ‘reflects increases in cases onboard cruise ships since identification of the Omicron variant’.
Cruise ships sit at ‘level yellow’ on the CDC’s color-coded chart, a category in which the agency investigates Covid-19 outbreaks on board. The CDC has investigated or begun probes into coronavirus cases on more than 90 ships.
The Cruise Lines International Association stated that ‘the decision by the CDC to raise the travel level for cruise is particularly perplexing considering that cases identified on cruise ships consistently make up a very slim minority of the total population onboard.’
Thursday’s CDC’s advisory is the latest blow to the cruise industry, which began sailing again in June after the pandemic suspended all voyages. Shares in major lines Carnival Corp, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd and Royal Caribbean Group fell 1% to 2% after the announcement.
Passengers already aboard ships should get tested three to five days after disembarking and self-monitor for coronavirus symptoms for 14 days, the CDC advises.
Cruises are not the only sector of the travel industry hard-hit by the Omicron variant.
Thousands of flights have been canceled or delayed since the days leading up to Christmas. On Thursday, nearly 1,140 flights were canceled and almost 9,000 were delayed as of around 1pm ET, according to the flight-tracking website FlightAware.com.
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