The White House is waiting for a proposal from the cruise ship industry about preventing coronavirus infections on ships before deciding if it will actively discourage people from embarking on trips on them.
Vice President Mike Pence said at Monday's press conference that it has been made "very clear" that cruise ships must be made safer, reports Politico.
The ships have become a central fixture in the outbreak after more than 700 cases were linked to the Diamond Princess cruise ship which was quarantined off the coast of Japan for two weeks. Another 21 cases were confirmed on the Grand Princess cruise ship that was docked on Oakland, Calif., Monday.
The State Department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a warning over the weekend advising elderly and medically fragile people to avoid cruise ships for the rest of the outbreak.
Top health officials, such as Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, CMS Administrator Seema Verma, Surgeon General Jerome Adams, and NIH infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci all have agreed that more must be done to crack down on cruise ship travel, a senior administration official told Politico.
However, White House officials have pushed back at such steps, saying that it could be harmful to the economy, particularly in Florida.
The Cruise Lines International Association said Sunday the industry plans extra measures to conduct additional screening and to block passengers from boarding who have traveled from nations such as China or Iran, where COVID-19 has hit hard.
The association said in a statement that it and its member lines, "in concert with pronouncements from the World Health Organization, do not believe restrictions on the movement of ships are justified."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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