CDC unveils new grading system for cruise ships. It could help crew get home
Two and a half months after the cruise industry shut down, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the world’s largest cruise companies are nearly in agreement about how to limit COVID-19 outbreaks on ships while cruises remain banned, the agency told the Miami Herald Monday.
The CDC is nearing the end of its review of health and safety plans submitted in April by South Florida-based Carnival Corporation, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, MSC Cruises, Disney Cruise Line, Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line and Virgin Voyages outlining how the companies will detect, prevent and mitigate the spread of the coronavirus at sea while cruises are stopped. The agency plans to publish the plans in the coming week, along with a scorecard for each ship operating in U.S. waters that reflects its level of infection.
The ships will be graded on a color-coded system: green for no confirmed cases of COVID-19 or COVID-like illness for 28 days, yellow for one or more COVID-like illness cases pending confirmation, red for one or more cases of confirmed COVID-19 or COVID-like illness within the past 28 days. If the ship is designated green, commercial transportation for crew repatriation is allowed. More than 62,000 crew members are still waiting to go home.
Based on the designations announced Tuesday on the CDC’s website, companies may be required to put crew members in single-occupancy cabins (as most are already doing), close all group venues, and mandate face coverings for all crew. All ships have to eliminate self-serve dining, discourage handshaking, promote hand washing and place hand sanitizer throughout the ship.
The new data could better illuminate just how many cruise ships have been affected by COVID-19 outbreaks. An ongoing Miami Herald investigation has confirmed COVID-19 cases linked to 63 ships, nearly one-fourth of the global ocean cruise fleet.
Outbreaks continue among crew members who remain trapped on ships awaiting repatriation 10 weeks after the industry initially stopped cruises as travel restrictions around the world have tightened. Since then, hundreds of crew members have been infected with COVID-19, and at least seven have died from the disease, according to a Miami Herald data analysis.
Cruise companies say they are continuing to work with the CDC on these plans to prevent outbreaks.
“It is still early in the process, and our current focus has been on repatriating our crew members to their respective home countries, but we will continue to work closely with the CDC, as well as other health authorities and governments, on the requirements and protocol needed to resume cruising in the future,” said Carnival Corp. spokesperson Roger Frizzell. He said the company has repatriated 42,000 crew members, while 38,000 are still awaiting repatriation.
“We are studying the CDC’s latest update. We will continue to work with CDC and other authorities toward our shared goal of getting our crew safely home,” said Royal Caribbean Cruises spokesperson Jonathon Fishman. He said the company has repatriated 24,567 crew members, while 19,098 await repatriation.
A spokesperson for MSC Cruises said the company has repatriated 14,538 crew members, while 4,097 are awaiting repatriation, and is evaluating the new grading system. An MSC ship is en route to Europe with 1,430 home-bound crew members, the company said, and noted that some countries still will not allow citizens to return.
Virgin Voyages has repatriated around 400 crew members while around 80 are still waiting to go home, according to a spokesperson.
Non-working crew members on Royal Caribbean Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line, MSC Cruises and certain Carnival Corp. subsidiaries including Princess Cruises ships are not being paid. Royal Caribbean is providing $13 a day to non-working crew, who say they must pay for onboard toiletries.
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, Disney Cruise Line, and Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The seven cruise companies first submitted plans about how to limit the spread of COVID-19 among crew members on April 23 after the CDC’s no-sail order took effect, banning cruising in U.S. waters until at least July 24. The plans give the companies permission to bring ships into U.S. waters while cruising remains banned and require cruise ships to submit medical data to the CDC on a weekly basis, said CDC’s director of the Division of Global Migration and Quarantine Martin Cetron. Cruise ships already submit similar data to the CDC regarding gastrointestinal illnesses at sea as part of the agency’s Vessel Sanitation Program.
“This is a big industry with a lot of players,” said Cetron. “This is an industry that has been under CDC oversight for many years,” subject to both announced and unannounced inspections and ship scoring systems.
The CDC has oversight over U.S.-based cruises, which represent the bulk of the industry’s business. Nearly two-thirds of Carnival Corp. ships were based in North America in 2019, according to financial filings, and revenue from North American cruises accounted for nearly 60% of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. revenue the same year.
Getting back to business
The industry is hoping to resume cruises — with passengers on them — as early as this summer. But the plans now being finalized don’t apply to passenger cruises. Cetron said the CDC has not begun to review plans for how to safely operate cruises prior to development of a vaccine.
“This is the bare minimum,” Cetron said of the plans to mitigate spread of the virus on ships while cruising is stopped. “If a line ever wants to get back to full density on board, bringing on board people who are at risk of dying of COVID, they have to be able to control COVID on these ships when their occupancy is 90% less. It will be this plan on steroids.”
Cetron described the cruise companies’ task of protecting future passengers and crew members from COVID-19 as “herculean,” and compared the risk of infection on cruise ships to meat packing plants, long-term care facilities, and prisons.
“You scale that to where your population is global in nature. It’s all of those challenges plus being out at sea without access to rapid medical support that’s needed,” he said.
On Monday, Norwegian Cruise Line announced its health protocols for when cruising resumes, including having COVID-19 tests on-board, creating a new Public Health Officer position for each ship, taking passengers’ temperatures before boarding and increasing the frequency of cleaning on board.
The company’s largest competitors — Carnival Corp., Royal Caribbean Cruises and MSC Cruises — have not yet announced health protocols for passenger cruises.
The Miami Herald interviewed five doctors, three of whom treated COVID-19 patients on cruise ships, about what cruise companies can do to keep passengers and crew safe if companies resume operations before a vaccine is available. They recommend cruises operate at 50% capacity, test passengers for COVID-19 before boarding, stay within 500 miles of land, and provide ships with more medical staff and ventilators, among other things.
An earlier version of this story misstated the number of Royal Caribbean Cruises crew members who have been repatriated (24,567) and are awaiting repatriation (19,098).
This story was originally published June 2, 2020 at 6:12 PM.
