CDC to lift ban on cruises despite risk
Ships are vulnerable to COVID outbreaks, agency scientists warn, but will be allowed back in U. S. waters.
The U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Friday that it would lift a ban on cruises in U. S. waters, even as government scientists warned that ships remain vulnerable to deadly COVID- 19 outbreaks.
The agency provided a list of detailed requirements cruise lines must meet to resume U. S. operations — meaning ships could return to U. S. ports in the next few months.
“This framework provides a pathway to resume safe and responsible sailing,” CDC Director Robert Redfield said in the statement Friday.
Yet the CDC said recent outbreaks show that cruise travel “facilitates and amplif ies” the transmission of COVID- 19 even at reduced passenger capacities and would pose a risk of fueling the spread of the disease without proper oversight.
The decision, which comes as cases are surging in several parts of the U. S., ends a ban that had been in place since March 14.
The CDC last month recommended extending the ban to February, but Vice President Mike Pence, who chairs the White House coronavirus task force, overruled that proposal, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Getting back to sea may not be simple. The initial phase will require cruise operators to “demonstrate adherence to testing, quarantine and isolation and social distancing requirements to
protect crew members while they build the laboratory capacity needed to test crew and future passengers,” the agency said.
Shares of Carnival Corp., the largest cruise operator, climbed 5.6% on Friday. Royal Caribbean Group stock rose 4.8%, and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. rose 5.5%.
The seven- month shutdown has been catastrophic for an industry that was booming before the pandemic, costing thousands of jobs and generating billions of dollars in losses. Since the end of January, the three biggest lines — Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian — have lost tens of billions of dollars in combined market capitalization.
Since the order was imposed in March, the CDC has faced intense pressure by the major cruise lines and the White House to end it. The cruise industry this year has doubled the number of lobbyists it employs to target the White House, Congress and numerous federal agencies, disclosures show.
Major cruise lines also have presented detailed plans to make ships safer from COVID- 19, with recommendations that include sailing initially with fewer passengers, eliminating food buffets and requiring face masks and some virus testing onboard.
The CDC can impose nosail orders due to public health threats under federal law, but Pence and the task force view the CDC as having an advisory role, according to a senior administration official who asked not to be named.
That view has led the White House to clash with CDC experts and overrule them in some cases. Pence’s decision last month to override the recommendation to extend the cruise ban to February was f irst reported by Axios. The White House task force intervened similarly last spring to shorten an extension proposed by the CDC, according to three people familiar with the matter.
It’s unclear when cruise lines will return to f illing
ships with passengers at U. S. ports, despite the end of the no- sail order.
Cruise lines had already voluntarily halted cruises until Saturday and canceled many cruises that had been planned for the rest of this year. Carnival recently said that “November 2020 operations will not be feasible” but that there’s solid demand for bookings next year.
“The company believes this demonstrates the longterm potential demand for cruising,” Carnival said in an Oct. 12 statement.
The CDC has made clear that cruises are a long way from being safe from the coronavirus.
As of Sept. 28, 124 cruise ships, 82% of the U. S. f leet, had suffered COVID- 19 outbreaks, killing at least 41 people and sickening 3,689, the CDC said last month. And recent cruises in other countries suffered outbreaks despite implementing the same measures U. S. cruise lines are proposing.