Cruise industry leaders Royal Caribbean Group and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. announced a collaboration to develop enhanced cruise health and safety standards in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Both companies will collaborate to develop recommendations for cruise lines to advance their public health response to COVID-19, improve safety, and achieve readiness for the safe resumption of operations.
The experts have been working for about a month and will provide their recommendations by the end of August.
Richard D. Fain, chairman and CEO, Royal Caribbean Group commented that
This unprecedented disease requires us to develop unprecedented standards in health and safety … Bringing aboard these respected experts to guide us forward demonstrates our commitment to protecting our guests, our crews and the communities we visit.
In addition, Kelly Craighead, president and CEO of Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) stated that health and safety are the highest priority for all CLIA cruise line members as demonstrated by this initiative.
The two companies initiated the panel to assure the plans they will submit to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other regulators apply the best available public health, science and engineering insights. The work of the panel will be shared with the entire industry and regulators.
Concluding, the panel is co-chaired by Governor Leavitt, former Secretary of the U.S. Department Health and Human Services (HHS), and Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
