The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating some 86 cruise ships for COVID-19, according to multiple reports. The Washington Post said in today’s edition that 86 ships in U.S. waters are being looked at. BNN Bloomberg pegged the number of ships under investigation by the CDC at 89. Several cruise ships were turned away from ports in the Caribbean and Mexico over the past week due to concerns about COVID-19 and the Omicron variant. The website Axios said affected cruise lines include Disney, Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian. The CDC today lists cruise travel at level three in Read more
omicron
The best-known COVID-19 expert in the U.S. says the American government should “seriously” consider requiring domestic travellers to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. “There’s requirements that you might want to get if you want to get into college, or you want to go to a university, or you want to work in certain places,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, said on MSNBC on Monday. “When you make vaccination a requirement, that’s another incentive to get more people vaccinated. If you want to do that with domestic flights, I think that’s something that seriously should be considered.” CNBC Read more
Several ocean cruise ships were turned away from ports of call or were prohibited from letting passengers disembark in the Americas this week because of Covid-19 cases aboard, CNN reports. That’s nothing like the massive disruption when the pandemic hit in March of last year, but it comes at a time when the cruise industry was just getting back in the swing of things. An Expedia Group study released in late November found that there had been more than a 20% month on month increase in demand in Canadian cruise searches for travel in the fourth quarter of 2021 and Read more
A new survey finds that roughly one-third of Canadians have cancelled travel plans due to the Omicron variant. The survey by Canadian-based redflagdeals.com found that 31% of respondents said they’ve cancelled flights because of the variant. Of course, that means nearly 70% plan to go ahead with travel plans. WestJet officials today told me they were very busy over the Christmas weekend. The survey also found that 63% of Canadians are hesitant about booking new flights right now. But Canadians also appear optimistic about the future. While only 22% of Canadians plan to fly in the next one to three Read more
It became a little tougher today for Canadians to travel. Just after midnight Eastern Time today, December 21, new rules brought in by the government of Canada to combat the Omicron variant took effect. Under the new regulations, any Canadian who leaves the country must submit a negative PCR test before they’re allowed to return, even if they’re only gone for a few hours. The government was allowing Canadians who left the country for less than 72 hours to get tested before they left on their trip. But the ruling Liberals passed new legislation last week that revoked that policy. Read more
