CDC lowers risk assessment for traveling on cruise ships to ‘moderate’

Spectrum of the Seas cruise ship is docked at Kai Tak cruise terminal in Hong Kong Wednesday, Jan.5, 2022. Thousands of passengers are being held on a Hong Kong cruise ship for coronavirus testing, after health authorities traced nine close contacts of a recent omicron cluster on the ship and ordered it to turn back. Authorities ordered the Royal Caribbean’s Spectrum of the Seas ship, which began sailing on Sunday on a “cruise to nowhere” and was due to return Thursday, to return a day earlier, according to a government statement posted in the early hours of Wednesday. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has lowered its risk assessment for traveling on cruise ships.

This week, the agency classified cruise ship travel as a “Level 2,” dropping it down from “Level 3.”

According to the CDC, a Level 2 classification means a person’s chances of catching COVID-19 onboard a cruise ship are considered “moderate,” but the risk level can be slightly higher depending on the destination.

The agency still recommends that travelers get updated on COVID-19 vaccinations and boosters before setting sail.

The new classification marks the lowest risk assessment the CDC has assigned to cruise ships since late December. At that time, the agency issued its highest warning level, Level 4, due to the highly-contagious omicron variant that prompted record spread of COVID-19.

The CDC later downgraded risk from Level 4 to Level 3 in February.

New COVID-19 cases have dropped to their lowest levels since last summer now that the omicron wave is receding.

.Page-below > .RichTextModule {display:none;} .Page-below .Link {font-size: 12px; padding: 5px 10px;border: 1px solid #005687;border-radius: 4px;font-family: “proxima-nova”, sans-serif; }


Trending stories at Newsy.com