This will go into effect for US-bound air travelers at midnight Sunday.
The US travel industry had lobbied hard to repeal the rule on the grounds it was impacting economic recovery. ‘More than 40 nations have safely removed their pre-departure testing requirement and a recent survey found that 54% of international travelers were less likely to visit the US with the requirement still in place,’ US Travel Association President Roger Dow said earlier this week.
Today, Dow welcomedthe change as’another huge step forward for the recovery of inbound air travel and the return of international travel to the United States.’
A positive for Americans cruising abroad
And for the cruise industry, it’s a positive since the testing requirement had been seen as a deterrent for Americans to cruise abroadsince they might test positive before returning home and getstuck somewhere in shoreside quarantine.
Testing mandate for cruisers not expected to change
While the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is removing the mandate for international air arrivals, cruise industry sources said it’s unlikely the CDC will make any change to testing protocols for passenger ships.
A new COVID wave fueled by Omicron subvariants is driving up infections throughout the US and elsewhere.
Nearly all ships now ‘orange’
According to the CDC’s color-coded Cruise Ship Status Dashboard, 85 ships are now designated ‘orange,’ meaning COVID cases onboard meet the threshold for investigation (0.3% of total passsengers /or crew or 1% of crew on ships not yet carrying passengers). Four ships are ‘yellow’ (reported cases below the investigation threshold) and just two are ‘green’ (no reported cases).
No ships are at ‘red.’
Pre-cruise testing required
Currently, every traveler embarking on a cruise from the US — whether vaccinated or not — needs to present a negative COVID test to be allowed onboard. For unvaccinated travelers, there’s an added antigen screening at the terminal.
Cruise lines have made accommodations for those travelers who show up without being tested by making terminal testing available, on a limited basis.
Testing an added assurance to limit the spread
‘A year ago, we thought just getting vaccinated would prevent you from getting infected,’ a cruise industry operations expert said. ‘Now we know from the Delta and especially Omicron variants that vaccination doesn’t prevent COVID buthelps reduce hospitalization and death. So the screening with testing is really giving travelers assurance that COVID’s spread will be limited onboard.’
