The cruise industry is pretty salty about the latest federal guidelines for safe pandemic sailing, calling it ‘heavy’ and ‘unworkable’. ‘
The new guideline is an updated phase of the Framework for Conditional Sailing Order (CSO), issued on April 2 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Although it should not be vaccinated for all staff and travelers, the shots are recommended and additional low health measures are needed to try to give any COVID-19 outbreaks on board – which is very difficult to do on the tightly packed, strong social vessels.
Under the various amendments, cruise operators must increase the frequency with which they report the number of COVID-19 incidents on board, and this increases weekly to daily. It also requires cross lines to implement new routine testing for crew members. In addition, the guidelines require cruise lines to draw up agreements with port authorities and local health authorities to ensure that, in the event of an outbreak, coordination and infrastructure will be necessary to safely, isolate and isolate passengers and crew on land. to treat. .
Once these requirements are met, cruise operators can be mocked with volunteer passengers and, if all goes well, apply for a ‘Conditional Sailing Certificate’.
In a statement released Monday, the prominent industry group Cruise Lines International Association issued a statement calling the new leadership “unnecessarily cumbersome, largely unworkable”.
Disappointing
The CLIA claims that the health guidelines ‘deprive American workers to participate in the economic recovery’ and provide ‘no observable route or time frame for resumption’ of voyages out of the country. The group concluded its statement by urging the Biden government to “consider the abundant evidence that the removal of the CSO this month is considering enabling the planning of a controlled return to service this summer.”
Also, Frank Del Rio, CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, said in an interview with The Washington Post on Monday that the company was “disappointed” with the latest guidance from the CDC. “We thought it was a step backwards, to be honest,” Del Rio said.
The travel manager sent a letter to CDC director Rochelle Walensky on Monday, citing the travel company’s plan to resume safety, which includes mandatory vaccination for all passengers and employees. Del Rio refuses the agency’s additional requirements, regardless of vaccination status.
The CDC is unlikely to be moved on the subject. In its announcement of the guidance, the agency noted that “it is difficult and safe to navigate during a global pandemic. While the voyage will always involve a risk of COVID-19 transmission, the phases of the CSO will ensure that passenger operations of the cruise ship are conducted in a manner that protects crew members, passengers and port staff, especially with emerging COVID-19 variants which is worrying. . ”
In the early days of the pandemic, cruise ships were one of the first notable victims of COVID-19 and experienced devastating outbreaks that received international attention. One of the most memorable was the Diamond Princess, who was quarantined in a Japanese port for weeks in February 2020 amid a burning outbreak. At one point, the luxury liner had the largest group COVID-19 outside China, where the pandemic began. A total of 712 of the 3,711 passengers and crew of the ship were infected, 37 required intensive care and nine died.