30/12/2021
With the CDC's most recent announcement, you might be left wondering if cruising is still a safe way to travel. We would like to provide some additional information to consider as you make your decision about traveling.
• Cruise industry protocols are unique in their approach to effectively monitor, detect, and respond to potential cases of COVID-19.
• Protocols encompass the entirety of the cruise experience, incorporating testing, vaccination, screening, sanitation, mask-wearing and other science-backed measures.
• Many of the cruise lines have announced additional measures in response to the Omicron variant, including strengthening testing, masking and other requirements, as well as encouraging booster vaccine doses for those eligible.
• Over 100 cruise ships have returned to U.S. waters, carrying nearly more than one million people from a U.S. port since late June 2021.
• The cruise industry is the only industry in the U.S. travel and tourism sector that is requiring both vaccinations and testing for crew and guests.
• Vaccination rates onboard a cruise ship are upwards of 95 percent—significantly higher than the overall U.S. population which is hovering at 62 percent.
• In the U.S. alone, the cruise industry administers nearly 10 million tests per week—21x the rate of testing in the United States.
• The latest data show that, even with higher rates of testing, the cruise industry continues to achieve significantly lower rates of occurrence of COVID-19—33 percent lower than onshore.
• According to the CDC’s color-coding system, a cruise ship may be determined to be “yellow” – and, therefore, subject to CDC observation – if a threshold of 0.10 percent or more passengers (i.e., 7 out of 6,500) have tested positive in the last seven days, or if even just one crewmember tests positive.
Source: Cruise Line International Association
