Thanks to vaccinations, cruises could restart from South Florida in July, CDC says
Cruise companies can speed up their restarts in U.S. waters if they guarantee most crew and passengers are vaccinated against COVID-19, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a letter to companies Wednesday night obtained by the Herald — meaning passenger cruises could restart from South Florida in July.
If ships can certify that 98% of their crew and 95% of their passengers are vaccinated, they won’t need to do test cruises before restarting passenger operations, the letter said. The CDC estimates that passengers could be boarding cruise ships in U.S. waters as soon as mid-July depending on how quickly cruise companies meet the agency’s requirements.
The change to the restart timeline comes after a month of twice-weekly meetings between the CDC’s maritime team and the cruise industry and ports.
CEO of Royal Caribbean International Michael Bayley said the quicker timeline for vaccinated cruises is a positive development.
“The mood of Royal Caribbean last night and late into the night was simply positive that all of this dialogue that was constructive resulted in clearly being heard,” he said on a company earnings call Thursday. “The vaccines are the major foundational game changing element of this.”
In its letter to cruise companies Wednesday, the CDC also changed testing and quarantine requirements for passengers and crew. Once U.S. cruises restart, fully vaccinated people will be required to take a rapid antigen test — whose results are usually available within in a few hours — before boarding instead of a PCR test, whose results can take days. Passengers who require a post-cruise quarantine period will be able to quarantine at their home if they live within driving distance of the ship.
Passengers have not boarded ocean cruises in U.S. waters since March 2020 after COVID-19 outbreaks and deaths on multiple ships.
The CDC’s conditional sail order, first issued in October, lays out benchmarks cruise companies must meet before they can welcome passengers back. The first phase required companies to ramp up their onboard COVID-19 testing capabilities to be able to test crew members for the virus weekly and report results to the CDC.
Instructions for the second phase, published in early April, require companies to secure agreements with U.S. ports and local health authorities in the places they plan to visit and develop vaccination plans for passengers and crew.
None of the cruise companies have turned in their agreements to the CDC yet, according to sources familiar with the situation.
PortMiami director Juan Kuryla said Wednesday he anticipates turning in Miami’s agreements with cruise companies to the CDC next week. In a statement, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said she’s been encouraged by the joint meetings with the CDC this month.
“The new guidelines move us closer to reopening, reflecting the great progress being made on vaccination in Miami-Dade and across the country,” she said.
Some cruise companies have already pledged to require all of their passengers and crew for U.S. cruises be fully vaccinated, including Virgin Voyages and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings. Cruise companies are already enforcing the 100% vaccine rule for upcoming cruises in other countries, including the United Kingdom and Israel.
But in Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis said he will prevent cruise companies from guaranteeing everyone on board their ships has received the vaccine, complicating company efforts to safely restart cruises.
DeSantis’ office did not respond to a request for comment about the new CDC rules.
Earlier this month DeSantis sued the CDC in an effort to force the agency to allow for cruises to restart immediately in what legal experts call a “political stunt.” The first hearing in the case is scheduled for May 12.
The CDC changes in the letter to companies Wednesday came after Florida Republicans introduced legislation that would have changed CDC restrictions on cruises to allow them to begin sailing by July.
Sen. Rick Scott, who introduced a bill with Sen. Marco Rubio and House Republicans earlier this month to override the CDC’s previous requirements on cruise lines, praised the changes. The CDC’s new guidance could allow cruises to begin by July, which was the intention of Scott’s legislation.
“I am glad that the CDC has finally answered my calls to get things moving in the right direction so our cruise industry can get back to work,” Scott said in a statement. “This new guidance from the CDC is a welcome change in course that will provide desperately needed clarity for so many employers and families in Florida and across the nation.”
Rubio said the CDC’s sped-up timeline for restarting cruises is “certainly progress” and that most cruise companies want to have their passengers and crew vaccinated.
“On the vaccination requirement, I think the companies were going to do that anyway and I’ll obviously want to see how the details of the regulations apply to real life but it’s certainly progress, at least it’s a guidepost, a road map for moving forward,” Rubio said in an interview on Capitol Hill.
Rubio said he’s okay with the CDC recommending that the vast majority of passengers and crew should be vaccinated before resuming operations.
“I think if it gets them sailing, if that’s what it takes to get them into the sea, to get these things moving, it’s better than what we have now,” Rubio said.
This story was originally published April 29, 2021 at 11:28 AM.
