With earlier incidents in the month for multiple cruise lines, the US has officially issued a statement urging people to stay off of cruise lines for the time being.
After lengthy issues with multiple cruise ships quarantining passengers for COVID-19, the US has finally stepped in. Well, sort of.
An official statement from the US Department of State urges people to seek alternative vacation plans or means of travel. Unfortunately this spells bad news for a lot of cruise ships with COVID on board.
Particularly, it seems, that of Florida’s travel industry. The owner of Jordan Executive Travel Service, Maggie Jordan, said this on the matter.
“If they’re coming out with a statement to that magnitude, there’s obviously a lot of concern about how this is going to affect the U.S. and our travelers, especially since we have so many cruise ports here in Florida. This is a big deal. Cruise ships are already struggling. People are already canceling out of fear of traveling on a cruise, being contained with a lot of people.”
Maggie Jordan, News4Jax
Definitely not news you’d like to hear when that’s your means of income and stability.
This is not the first time we’ve had concerns of cruise ships bringing COVID to more widespread areas. Recently the cruise ship Princess was quarantined at sea.
While it is expected to dock soon, there’s no telling how many people are infected. This has caused some turmoil as multiple cruise liners now have to concern themselves with potentially long days at sea or even refunds.
All of this points to one mitigating factor, that cruise ships have become effective germ bombs for COVID-19. Leading to many concerned officials that the longer people believe it to be a safe means of vacationing will inevitably lead to more cases.
