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.
Read more at our news partner, the Miami Herald.
