The Centers for Disease Control has extended its Conditional Sail Order, the rules under which cruises from the U.S. operate, through January 15, but it has modified some of the rules, and will allow cruises longer than the one-week limit it imposed last summer.
The order, which was to expire November 1, specified requirements for health and safety to be followed by cruise companies including a variety of mask and social distance rules, as well as some differences applying to vaccinated passengers. The extension of the health and safety protocols is not an issue, as cruise companies had already committed to maintaining them, and they are reassuring to passengers.
Other than the change in permitted cruise length, the new order removes the requirement for cruise lines to include Covid warnings in their advertising and websites, and ends the requirement that ships cancel all future sailings if a case of Covid were detected onboard.
