CDC adjusts warnings

[deliver42]

The CDC has changed the rating for cruising from 3 down to 2. Hopefully eliminating testing is next.

[ymncruise]

looking forward to the day that testing isn't required!

[cbfb]

4 minutes ago, ymncruise said:

looking forward to the day that testing isn't required!

Could not agree more! 

[misha1]

Elimination of testing would be a stress reliever

[RichYak]

50 minutes ago, ymncruise said:

looking forward to the day that testing isn't required!

IMO, that will eventually come in spite of the CDC, not from the CDC. At some point, one major cruise line will stop voluntarily adhering to the CDC cruise guidance and the rest will follow.

[Ken the cruiser]

Here’s a link to an article about the recent change issued today.

 

https://cruiseradio.net/cdc-lowers-cruise-ship-travel-warning-again/

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, ymncruise said:

looking forward to the day that testing isn't required!

 

Here’s an excerpt from the above article I found interesting. Maybe CDC will change their pre-cruise testing guidance when they eventually lower their recommendation to Level 1. 🤞🤞

 

Level 2 means that, based on statistics, the CDC has seen 50 to 99 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents in the past 28 days. For cruises, it means that there has been a major decrease in onboard cases among guests and crew for ships operating in the United States.

 

At Level 2, the CDC advises that everyone is up to date with their COVID-19 vaccines. Those who are not or are at an increased risk for severe illness should avoid cruising.

 

For the CDC to lower the cruise travel health risk down to a Level 1, ships must have fewer than 50 new cases per 100,000 people over the past 28 days.

 

 

[D C]

Interesting.  So after all this time, cruising is ok with them.

 

Hopefully they drop the testing requirement asap.  

[TeeRick]

This is good news overall.  The elimination of the on board mask requirement a few weeks ago apparently did not cause increased positive cases on board.  Now let's get the pre-cruise tests eliminated too.  Will some of you still decide to do pre-cruise tests even if they get eliminated?   Kind of like the people choosing to still wear masks on board?  Serious question.

[wallysdtr]

Does the CDC indicate the percentage of passengers each ship can have? 

[wrk2cruise]

We had a group of 40-50 neighbors from our 55+ community sail on Silhouette a couple just over a week ago.  As of yesterday 12 have tested positive for covid.   I wonder if these cases will ever get traced back to Celebrity.

 

Leaving on 10th sailing since restart on Saturday.   I'm still taking precautions to protect myself.

 

[Moby Jones]

10 minutes ago, TeeRick said:

This is good news overall.  The elimination of the on board mask requirement a few weeks ago apparently did not cause increased positive cases on board.  Now let's get the pre-cruise tests eliminated too.  Will some of you still decide to do pre-cruise tests even if they get eliminated?   Kind of like the people choosing to still wear masks on board?  Serious question.

 

Serious answer. We have tests at home. I'd take a test at any time if exhibiting symptoms. If I had no covid symptoms when about to board a ship I wouldn't bother if it wasn't required. 

Regardless I plan to keep my vaccine status up to date whether required to travel or not. And will take basic hygiene precautions to avoid catching it also. 

[5waldos]

They provide general information Here is the website https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/cruise/cruise-ship-color-status.html. The list of ships is in the box near the top of the page. 

 

And as far as testing- those of us sailing out of Canada will continue to need testing. And I am fine with it- it can be a pain but getting sick with CoVid would be (in many cases) a lot more of a pain.

Edited March 15, 2022 by 5waldos

[D C]

16 minutes ago, TeeRick said:

This is good news overall.  The elimination of the on board mask requirement a few weeks ago apparently did not cause increased positive cases on board.  Now let's get the pre-cruise tests eliminated too.  Will some of you still decide to do pre-cruise tests even if they get eliminated?   Kind of like the people choosing to still wear masks on board?  Serious question.

Nope. No requirement to test, no test.  

I've successfully avoided non-cruise testing since July 2020 and plan to continue that trend.

 

[canderson]

51 minutes ago, wrk2cruise said:

We had a group of 40-50 neighbors from our 55+ community sail on Silhouette a couple just over a week ago.  As of yesterday 12 have tested positive for covid.   I wonder if these cases will ever get traced back to Celebrity.

 

How did they get to/from the ship?

[wrk2cruise]

4 minutes ago, canderson said:

How did they get to/from the ship?

 

Some drove, some flew.

[Jeremiah1212]

17 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

 

Here’s an excerpt from the above article I found interesting. Maybe CDC will change their pre-cruise testing guidance when they eventually lower their recommendation to Level 1. 🤞🤞

 

Level 2 means that, based on statistics, the CDC has seen 50 to 99 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents in the past 28 days. For cruises, it means that there has been a major decrease in onboard cases among guests and crew for ships operating in the United States.

 

At Level 2, the CDC advises that everyone is up to date with their COVID-19 vaccines. Those who are not or are at an increased risk for severe illness should avoid cruising.

 

For the CDC to lower the cruise travel health risk down to a Level 1, ships must have fewer than 50 new cases per 100,000 people over the past 28 days.

 

 

 

That article is extremely inaccurate. They are quoting the general Travel Health Notice levels. Cruises were given their own classification based on crew cases.

 

Why does CDC have a separate COVID-19 Travel Health Notice for Cruise Ships but not for other travel and entertainment settings?

 

CDC has a separate COVID-19 THN for cruise ships because the risk of disease transmission on cruise ships is different from that of shoreside travel and entertainment settings (such as restaurants, bars, and theme parks). Specifically, cruise ships are congregate residential settings with high risk of COVID-19 transmission among travelers (passengers and crew).

 

Cruise ships have thousands of travelers living for multiple days (or months for crew) on the same ship—eating, sleeping, and participating in activities together in one location. These factors are not typically found in other shoreside travel and entertainment settings (such as restaurants, bars, theme parks). Data from the pandemic suggest COVID-19 spreads quickly in group settings, including on cruise ships. Hence, CDC developed COVID-19 THN criteria specific to cruise ships to inform the public regarding COVID-19 conditions on cruise ships.

 

Shoreside travel and entertainment settings (such as U.S. resorts, restaurants, bars, theme parks) are primarily under the public health jurisdiction of state, local, territorial, and tribal public health authorities. However, cruise ships operating international voyages that enter U.S. waters are primarily under CDC’s public health authority.

 

Primary Criteria for Cruise Ship Travel

Primary Criteria for Cruise Ship Travel

	Travel Health Notice Level
	LEVEL 4 VERY HIGH	LEVEL 3 HIGH	LEVEL 2 MODERATE	LEVEL 1 LOW
Cumulative New COVID-19 Crew Case Counts (over past 14 days)	More than 2,000	1,000-2,000	500-999	Fewer than 500

Secondary criteria for cruise ships

1. Cumulative new symptomatic COVID-19 crew^[3] case counts over the past 14 days

Secondary Criteria for Cruise Ship Travel

Secondary Criteria for Cruise Ship Travel

	Travel Health Notice Level
	LEVEL 4 VERY HIGH	LEVEL 3 HIGH	LEVEL 2 MODERATE	LEVEL 1 LOW
Cumulative New Symptomatic COVID-19 Crew Case Counts (over past 14 days)	More than 1,000	500-999	100-500	Fewer than 100

[D C]

22 minutes ago, Jeremiah1212 said:

 

That article is extremely inaccurate. They are quoting the general Travel Health Notice levels. Cruises were given their own classification based on crew cases.

 

Why does CDC have a separate COVID-19 Travel Health Notice for Cruise Ships but not for other travel and entertainment settings?

 

CDC has a separate COVID-19 THN for cruise ships because the risk of disease transmission on cruise ships is different from that of shoreside travel and entertainment settings (such as restaurants, bars, and theme parks). Specifically, cruise ships are congregate residential settings with high risk of COVID-19 transmission among travelers (passengers and crew).

 

Cruise ships have thousands of travelers living for multiple days (or months for crew) on the same ship—eating, sleeping, and participating in activities together in one location. These factors are not typically found in other shoreside travel and entertainment settings (such as restaurants, bars, theme parks). Data from the pandemic suggest COVID-19 spreads quickly in group settings, including on cruise ships. Hence, CDC developed COVID-19 THN criteria specific to cruise ships to inform the public regarding COVID-19 conditions on cruise ships.

 

Shoreside travel and entertainment settings (such as U.S. resorts, restaurants, bars, theme parks) are primarily under the public health jurisdiction of state, local, territorial, and tribal public health authorities. However, cruise ships operating international voyages that enter U.S. waters are primarily under CDC’s public health authority.

 

Primary Criteria for Cruise Ship Travel

Primary Criteria for Cruise Ship Travel

	Travel Health Notice Level
	LEVEL 4 VERY HIGH	LEVEL 3 HIGH	LEVEL 2 MODERATE	LEVEL 1 LOW
Cumulative New COVID-19 Crew Case Counts (over past 14 days)	More than 2,000	1,000-2,000	500-999	Fewer than 500

Secondary criteria for cruise ships

1. Cumulative new symptomatic COVID-19 crew^[3] case counts over the past 14 days

Secondary Criteria for Cruise Ship Travel

Secondary Criteria for Cruise Ship Travel

	Travel Health Notice Level
	LEVEL 4 VERY HIGH	LEVEL 3 HIGH	LEVEL 2 MODERATE	LEVEL 1 LOW
Cumulative New Symptomatic COVID-19 Crew Case Counts (over past 14 days)	More than 1,000	500-999	100-500	Fewer than 100

 

Just "Cases", and nothing to do with "per passenger" or anything population based? How bizarre.

[WonderMan3]

2 hours ago, TeeRick said:

This is good news overall.  The elimination of the on board mask requirement a few weeks ago apparently did not cause increased positive cases on board.  Now let's get the pre-cruise tests eliminated too.  Will some of you still decide to do pre-cruise tests even if they get eliminated?   Kind of like the people choosing to still wear masks on board?  Serious question.

There's no way of knowing that since they don't do any testing onboard unless someone is showing symptoms and chooses to go to the clinic to get tested or has been asked to get tested due to contact tracing (which I'm not sure they're even doing anymore). Also, most cruisers who have tested positive have done so after they have gotten off the ship (based on the postings I've seen here) since it usually takes 3-5 days for symptoms to show up after being exposed.That being said, so many people got infected over the past couple of months that it is probably less risk now than it was in December or January.

[WonderMan3]

2 hours ago, wrk2cruise said:

We had a group of 40-50 neighbors from our 55+ community sail on Silhouette a couple just over a week ago.  As of yesterday 12 have tested positive for covid.   I wonder if these cases will ever get traced back to Celebrity.

 

 

Nope. And that's exactly what the cruise lines were counting on by not doing automatic testing at the end of the cruise ( I believe they were only doing that in Europe). The number of people who got Covid from a cruise is massively, massively under reported because most cruisers are testing positive once on land and it's then not counted as a cruise line case in reporting. At this point though, you have just as much chance of picking up Covid on a cruise as you do of going anywhere indoors where you opt to not wear a mask (restaurant, casino, move theater, etc.). You're taking a risk when doing any activity indoors without a mask where you will have relatively close contact with other people.

[WonderMan3]

2 hours ago, D C said:

Nope. No requirement to test, no test.  

I've successfully avoided non-cruise testing since July 2020 and plan to continue that trend.

 

"Successfully avoided"? Meaning you took the necessary precautions to avoid Covid (masking, social distancing, getting vaccinated) so that you could avoid having to get tested? 

[NutsAboutGolf]

21 hours ago, deliver42 said:

The CDC has changed the rating for cruising from 3 down to 2. Hopefully eliminating testing is next.

 

Celebrity doesn't control testing, the ports require them to...There was no testing required when they first restarted in the US.  I was on the 5th sailing on the Edge, which was the last that didn't require a test (if vaxed).  On the 6th Edge sailing X sent out an email telling pax they need to test a few days before boarding, many were unable to secure a test and tried to board anyways, embarkation was a disaster due to folks standing outside in the heat, several passed out, Capt Kate came out with water and the emergency services came to help.

[Spif Barwunkel]

2 hours ago, TeeRick said:

This is good news overall.  The elimination of the on board mask requirement a few weeks ago apparently did not cause increased positive cases on board.  Now let's get the pre-cruise tests eliminated too.  Will some of you still decide to do pre-cruise tests even if they get eliminated?   Kind of like the people choosing to still wear masks on board?  Serious question.

And a good question it is, TR. We are scheduled to fly to Rome on May 11, 2022 at 3:10pm for a 10 night cruise departing on May 13. Whether or not required, we will be covid tested in the A.M with results due prior to departure. If results are positive, we ain't goin'. If results are negative, that is good news for our health and the health of fellow travelers who are in contact with us. We will still be wearing masks on board the aircraft and while embarking on cruise day. Not to do so would completely negate our thoughts and reasoning pertinent to the overall cruising experience for  fellow passengers and crew. Personally, I do not want to be responsible for causing a negative vacation experience for others.   

 

 

 

 

[Jeremiah1212]

1 hour ago, D C said:

 

Just "Cases", and nothing to do with "per passenger" or anything population based? How bizarre.

 

It's not looking at passenger numbers. And they explain why. 

 

^[1] Because of the routine screening testing of crew, primary criteria are calculated using crew data only. Screening testing is not performed routinely among passengers; therefore, their COVID-19 results do not constitute an accurate representation of onboard COVID-19 case counts.

 

^[2] Cumulative crew cases represent cases from cruise ships operating in U.S. waters, which are listed on the Cruise Ship Color Status webpage. CDC does not count newly embarking crew cases (i.e., cases in crew that were identified during embarkation quarantine) as part of the total. Similar to the THN criteria for countries with a population fewer than or equal to 100,000 people, case counts are the primary criteria for destinations. Per data submitted by cruise ships, the total number of crew on board ships operating in U.S. waters has remained below 100,000 since the resumption of passenger operations. CDC will continue to evaluate these criteria.

[5waldos]

2 hours ago, wrk2cruise said:

We had a group of 40-50 neighbors from our 55+ community sail on Silhouette a couple just over a week ago.  As of yesterday 12 have tested positive for covid.   I wonder if these cases will ever get traced back to Celebrity.

 

Leaving on 10th sailing since restart on Saturday.   I'm still taking precautions to protect myself.

 

That is depressing. I do hope nobody gets really ill. I notice that the warning for the Millenium has gone up from green (no cases) to yellow (being monitored). Meaning that some have turned up onboard. We don't sail until late July and since we are leaving from Canada, all will be tested and negative. I really don't fancy cruising on a ship with untested people yet- to much still around.