CDC Director Robert Redfield said in a press release that the agency is “working with the cruise line industry to address the health and safety of crew at sea as well as communities surrounding U.S. cruise ship points of entry.”
He added, “The measures we are taking today to stop the spread of COVID-19 are necessary to protect Americans, and we will continue to provide critical public health guidance to the industry to limit the impacts of COVID-19 on its workforce throughout the remainder of this pandemic.”
Since the beginning of the global spread of COVID-19, several cruise ships have seen severe — and deadly — outbreaks of the virus.
Speaking to PEOPLE about why cruise vacations are particularly dangerous amid the pandemic, infectious disease expert Dr. William Haseltine noted that cruise ships “are incubators. Everybody’s close together, packed in all the time. One person gets sick, a lot of them get sick. It’s a very unfavorable environment for disease transmission.”
Despite these risks, some reports show cruisers are already planning voyages for 2021 despite current uncertainty. However, passengers rebooking with cruise credits for voyages that were canceled this spring likely account for a portion of those reservations.
A recent study conducted by Peak Prosperity, in partnership with Azurite Consulting, found that 22 percent of the avid cruisers they surveyed said they would never cruise again, while 65 percent plan to wait at least until there is a vaccine before returning to sail. Fifty-five percent of those planning to wait said they would delay their next cruise until at least one year after a vaccine is out.
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