US CDC Eases Warning for Cruises

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) eased its warnings for cruise ships from level 4, the highest, to 3 as operators prepare for summer trips from U.S. ports.

The CDC also recommended that people who were not fully vaccinated avoid cruise trips, and that travelers get tested 1 to 3 days before their trip and 3 to 5 days after their trip.

The regulator’s change, first posted on Wednesday, comes after two passengers on Royal Caribbean Group’s Celebrity Millennium tested positive and infection among crew members aboard Odyssey of the Seas forced the company to delay its much awaited launch.

The previous warning, imposed after incidents of rapidly spreading infections on ships last year, recommended that travelers avoid cruise trips altogether.

(Reporting by Nivedita Balu; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)