Carnival Cruise Line has updated its health restrictions across the fleet as the deadly coronavirus continues to impact the industry.
Carnival Updated Travel Restrictions
Carnival Cruise Line has updated its coronavirus travel health advisory in line with what was also announced by the Cruise Lines International Associating (CLIA) and due to working closely with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
The new restrictions now also include countries that have been heavily impacted by the virus with sharp increases of infections such as Iran, South Korea, and regions in Italy. This is in addition to China which is where the virus originally started in December 2019 in the city of Wuhan in Hubei province.
The cruise line states in its updated advisory that guests meeting the following criteria will be unable to sail:
If they have been to or traveled through China, Hong Kong, Macau, Iran, South Korea, or a location currently subject to isolation measures by government health authorities in the last 14 days prior to embarkation. This applies to municipalities in the Italian regions of Lombardy and Veneto that are under travel restrictions by the CDC.
If they have been in contact with another person suspected of having COVID-19.
As you can see the regions of Lombardy and Veneto in Italy have been added to the restrictions as Italy currently has 2,502 cases of COVID-19 and 80 deaths according to CDC statistics.
There are also guests that will have to undergo further screening including temperature a check before boarding the cruise ship. This applies to those who have visited Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand or Vietnam in the 14 days prior to embarkation. Confirmation is also needed to make sure guests have not visited the impacted regions in Italy.
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Carnival Cruise Line is working hard on making sure passengers and crew remain safe and measures also include mandatory health checks and reporting, pre-cruise and in-terminal screenings and questionnaires. The new policy also applies to all crew members and extra sanitations cleaning is taking place continuously across the fleet.
This news comes after Carnival also announced two cruise ships would not be calling to Jamaica and Grand Cayman while those nations work through policies for cruise ship visits. Recently, Caribbean ports have denied entry to cruise ships in fears of a guest or crew member having the coronavirus. Those having the common flu or symptoms are often tested but this is causing an impact on itineraries.
So far the virus named COVID-19 has infected more than 93,94 around the world with the majority in mainland China. The death toll stands at 3,198 as countries prepare for further cases in the coming weeks and months.
