After over two fraught years of cruise industry regulation by the Centers for Disease Control, including a year of no cruising followed by changing rules for testing and vaccination, CDC has taken its hand off the tiller and handed the issue back to the industry.
That comes after an original mandatory program transitioned into a set of CDC guidelines, accompanied by a color-coded chart of how well each ship was doing on Covid. Now, as of last week, CDC will step back, saying that the industry “has access to the necessary tools to prevent and mitigate Covid 19 on board.”
That doesn’t put CDC entirely out of the business; it will continue to publish guidance, but individual cruise lines will decide on safety measures and protocols, especially including whether they will require vaccination, how much testing will be required and so forth.
Some lines, including Azamara, have already moved to drop testing requirements for boarding at ports, except where the local authorities still require it.
