The US Centres for Disease Control & Prevention has urged travellers to avoid cruise ships, regardless of their vaccination status.
The CDC has raised its Covid-19 Travel Health Notice to Level 4, the highest level, saying this reflects increases in cases on cruise ships due to the Omicron variant.
"The virus that causes Covid-19 spreads easily between people in close quarters on board ships, and the chance of getting Covid-19 on cruise ships is very high, even if you are fully vaccinated and have received a Covid-19 vaccine booster dose," the CDC reports on its website.
More than 2,800 passengers and 1,300 crew were stuck on a Carnival Corp company cruise ship in Lisbon's port for five days from 29 December after a Covid outbreak. Everyone onboard over the age of 12 had been fully vaccinated and required to show a negative test before departure.
According to the CDC, more than 90 cruise ships have met the threshold for investigation due to the number of crew or passengers diagnosed with Covid. The CDC advice is a blow to the cruising industry which has only just begun to tentatively recover from the impact of the pandemic.
