CDC bans U.S. cruises through September, citing expanding coronavirus outbreaks

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday extended its ban on cruising in U.S. waters through Sept. 30, citing “ongoing” coronavirus outbreaks aboard ships.

The CDC’s no-sail order was previously due to expire on July 24. The Cruise Line International Association, which represents the largest cruise lines in the world, announced last month that its members had agreed to suspend operations until Sept. 15. 

Shares of Norwegian Cruise Line finished the day down more than 15{3c4481f38fc19dde56b7b1f4329b509c88239ba5565146922180ec5012de023f}. Royal Caribbean stock dropped over 7{3c4481f38fc19dde56b7b1f4329b509c88239ba5565146922180ec5012de023f} and shares of Carnival Corp. traded nearly 10{3c4481f38fc19dde56b7b1f4329b509c88239ba5565146922180ec5012de023f} lower at the market close. 

The coronavirus pandemic has rocked all three companies particularly hard as it’s brought global travel to a trickle. All three companies have been operating with low or no revenue since mid-March, when the trade group said its members would suspend operations. Shares of Norwegian are now down more than 73{3c4481f38fc19dde56b7b1f4329b509c88239ba5565146922180ec5012de023f} on the year while Royal has dropped over 59{3c4481f38fc19dde56b7b1f4329b509c88239ba5565146922180ec5012de023f}. Shares of Carnival Corp., the largest cruise operator in the world, have tumbled over 68{3c4481f38fc19dde56b7b1f4329b509c88239ba5565146922180ec5012de023f} since Jan. 1. 

The CDC said it’s been in touch with all three companies as well as the trade group and other cruise operators, including Disney, in assessing their plans to resume operations safely. The CDC said all proposals it initially received from cruise operators have been “incomplete” and “did not fully meet all the requirements” laid out in the health agency’s April 15 no-sail extension order.

In extending the ban on Thursday, CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield said that data collected by the agency shows at least 2,973 Covid-19 infections or Covid-like illnesses as well as 34 deaths came from cruise ships since the CDC started tracking the data earlier this year.

“These data have also revealed a total of 99 outbreaks on 123 different cruise ships, meaning that 80{3c4481f38fc19dde56b7b1f4329b509c88239ba5565146922180ec5012de023f} of ships within U.S. jurisdiction were affected by COVID-19 during this time frame,” Redfield wrote in the letter. “In addition, 9 ships still have ongoing or resolving COVID-19 outbreaks on board.”

Redfield wrote that current scientific evidence suggests that cruise ships present a greater risk of transmitting Covid-19 than other settings. He cited a study published in the Journal of Travel Medicine that said the basic reproduction rate, a number epidemiologists use to calculate the number of new cases expected from each infected person, was 14.8 aboard the Diamond Princess, one of the first cruise ships to experience an onboard outbreak. 

That means that every infected person aboard the Diamond Princess was estimated to pass it on to nearly 15 other people, on average. 

“This reproduction rate is approximately four times higher than the R0 of the original epicenter of the outbreak in Wuhan, China…,” Redfield wrote. “Cruise ship conditions amplified an already highly transmissible disease.”

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