The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lifted its Covid 19 rules for cruise ships. Instead, general health and hygiene guidelines should be revised soon. It is not yet known how this will affect the corona rules of individual shipping companies.

Effective July 18, 2022, the CDC's relatively strict US cruise control regime, which had been in effect without interruption since March 2020 and applied to all cruise ships calling at US ports or waters, was lifted.

CLIA welcomed the CDC's move. She has long called for cruise lines to be treated the same as other holiday and leisure areas and not be disadvantaged and restricted by special rules.

The CDC has announced new, general recommendations and guidelines for the coming days. It is still unclear exactly what measures will be included. The CDC also continues to issue special recommendations for cruise vacationers.

Cruise lines can now define their own Covid-19 safety measures on their ships. So far, however, no shipping company is aware of any immediate rule changes in reaction to the repeal of CDC regulations (as of July 18, 2022). They will likely wait for the CDC's new recommendations first to coordinate any relaxation.

In particular, the end of special pandemic rules could also mean the end of mandatory pre-cruise tests for the corona virus departing from US ports, which have also been largely abolished in the rest of the world. Mandatory vaccination may then no longer be officially mandated. Quarantine measures on board may also be omitted.

The CDC's special rules on Covid-19 have so far also included a color-coding system that can be used to roughly identify the current infection situation on each individual cruise ship. CDC immediately terminated this publicly available registry.