A man sails in his boat alongside cruise ships docked at Long Beach Harbor during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic on April 11, 2020 in Long Beach, California.
Apu Gomes | fake pictures
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday extended its ban on sailing in US waters until September 30, citing coronavirus outbreaks “on-going” aboard ships.
The CDC’s order not to sail was due to expire on July 24. The International Cruise Line Association, which represents the world’s largest cruise lines, announced last month that its members had agreed to suspend operations until September 15.
Norwegian Cruise Line shares ended the day with a drop of more than 15%. Royal Caribbean shares fell more than 7% and Carnival Corp. shares traded nearly 10% lower at the close of the market.
The coronavirus pandemic has shaken all three companies particularly hard as it has brought global travel to a trickle. All three companies have been operating with little or no income since mid-March, when the trade group said its members would suspend operations. Norwegian shares have now fallen more than 73% on the year, while Royal has fallen more than 59%. Shares of Carnival Corp., the world’s largest cruise operator, have fallen more than 68% since January 1.
The CDC said it has been in contact with all three companies, as well as the trading group and other cruise operators, including Disney, to evaluate their plans to safely resume operations. The CDC said all of the proposals it initially received from cruise operators have been “incomplete” and that they “did not fully meet all of the requirements” set forth in the health agency’s April 15 no-navigation extension order.
In extending the ban on Thursday, CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield said data compiled by the agency shows that at least 2,973 Covid-19 infections or Covid-like illnesses, as well as 34 deaths occurred on cruise ships. since CDC started tracking the data earlier this year.
“These data have also revealed a total of 99 outbreaks on 123 different cruises, meaning that 80% of ships within the US jurisdiction were affected by COVID-19 during this time period,” Redfield wrote in the letter. . “Additionally, 9 ships still have ongoing or in resolution COVID-19 outbreaks.”
Redfield wrote that current scientific evidence suggests that cruises present a higher risk of transmitting Covid-19 than other configurations. He cited a study published in the Journal of Travel Medicine that said the basic reproductive rate, a number that epidemiologists use to calculate the number of expected new cases for each infected person, was 14.8 aboard the Diamond Princess, one of the first cruise ships to experience an outbreak on board.
That means that it is estimated that all infected people aboard Princess Diamond transmit it to almost 15 other people, on average.
“This reproduction rate is approximately four times greater than the R0 of the original epicenter of the outbreak in Wuhan, China …” wrote Redfield. “Cruise ship conditions amplified an already highly communicable disease.”
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