Should you be planning a cruise this year? According to e-turbo news, The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) has updated its guidance on COVID-19 and Cruise Ship Travel, recommending that cruise travel be avoided regardless of vaccination status – a decision that has understandably upset the American Society of Travel Advisors. President Zane Kerby comments: “An increase in reported COVID cases on cruise ships should surprise no one given the worldwide spike driven by the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
The difference between enjoying a cruise vacation and visiting your local grocery store or restaurant, however, is the extraordinarily stringent anti-COVID measures put in place voluntarily by the cruise lines, in close consultation with the CDC.
These measures include testing, vaccination, sanitation, mask-wearing and other science-backed measures, as well as protocols to respond to potential cases of COVID-19. “If the average cruise ship were a U.S. state, it would be the safest in the country – by far. According to Royal Caribbean Group, since cruising restarted in the U.S. in June 2021, its ships have carried 1.1 million guests with 1,745 people testing positive – a positivity rate of 0.02 percent.
Among U.S. states as of January 4, Alaska’s positivity rate is the lowest at 9.4 percent, with Georgia’s the highest at 38.7 percent.
Edited by Ian McIntosh
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