The cruise industry is calling out the USA's CDC agency (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) for what it views as "unfair treatment" over a year after being shut down by the health authority in United States' waters due to the health crisis.
The industry's leading trade organization, CLIA (Cruise Lines International Association), is urging the Centers to lift its "framework for conditional sailing order" in order to allow cruises to resume in phases by the beginning of July 2021.
Kelly Craighead, president & CEO of CLIA, which represents ~95% of ocean-going cruise capacity, revealed in a statement that the outdated CSO, which had been issued almost 5 months ago, did not reflect the industry’s proven advancements and successful operating in other parts of the globe, nor the advent of vaccines, and unfairly treated cruises differently.
CLIA noted that since the CDC's order had been issued in October 2020, the Centers had not issued additional guidance as it had said it would. CLIA added the lack of any action by the Centers had effectively banned all voyages in the world's largest cruise market. CLIA claimed cruising was the "only sector" of the American economy that remained shut down.
According to CLIA, the cruise industry's desire to resume operations in July 2021 was "in line with President Joe Biden's forecast for normalcy in the United States."