CDC eased its stance on the safety of cruise travel for vaccinated passengers, lowering the travel alert level.
This comes just over a week before the first cruise in more than 15 months is scheduled to set sail from a US port.
According to CNN, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday lowered its health notice on cruise travel from Level 4, which recommends avoiding all travel, to Level 3, which encourages travelers to get fully vaccinated before traveling.
However, the agency still advises all unvaccinated travelers to avoid travel on cruise ships.
CDC also advises that people who decide to go on a cruise should get tested one to three days before their trip and three to five days after.
In addition, people who are not fully vaccinated should also self-quarantine for seven days after travel, even if they test negative. Those who do not get tested should self-quarantine for 10 days after travel.
The CDC’s lowered warning level comes while the industry prepares to restart in the US. The first sailing from a US port is planned to depart on June 26 from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Celebrity Cruises’ Celebrity Edge.
Currently, vaccination is a hot topic for the industry, as each ship must either perform a trial cruise with volunteer passengers to test safety protocols in advance of welcoming paying passengers or sail with 95% of passengers and crew who are vaccinated.
However, vaccine requirements by businesses are banned in Florida, Texas and Alabama, where many cruise lines operate.
Taking this into consideration, it remains unclear how this and other cruise lines’ policies will work with the vaccine requirement bans.
