After playing a huge role in the cruise industry for nearly two and a half years, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has scrapped its COVID-19 Program for Cruise Ships.
On its website, the CDC Cruise Ship Guidance page states that the program is "no longer in effect." The CDC also said, "Cruise ships have access to guidance and tools to manage their own COVID-19 mitigation programs."
The Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) applauded the decision, which it believes the industry has earned through a lot of hard work.
"This is an important step forward in the CDC aligning the guidelines for cruise with those it has established for other travel, hospitality and entertainment sectors," CLIA stated. "The sunsetting of the CDC program is a testament to the effectiveness of the industry's comprehensive and robust protocols."
The CDC says new guidance for cruise ships to mitigate and manage Covid-19 transmission will be available in the coming days. But the public health agency has been rolling back highly stringent regulations over the past few months, as the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic has eased and cruise lines have demonstrated they can provide a comparatively safe environment for travel.
We can also say goodbye to the CDC's colour-coded system for reporting the number of cases aboard cruise ships. The CDC says the system "depended upon each cruise line having the same Covid-19 screening testing standards, which may now vary."
The CDC says it will continue to provide testing recommendations for cruise ship operators to follow and cruise ships will continue to report COVID-19 cases to CDC.
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