RELATED: Unvaccinated People Will Be Barred From This, Starting Feb. 28. As of Feb. 1, a new policy has gone into effect at Viking Cruises that requires all passengers to have received their COVID-19 booster if they are eligible to do so. The new rule, which was first announced on Jan. 5, states that travelers must provide proof of the supplemental shot to board ships at embarkation. The newly active requirement expands on the existing rule for passengers to provide proof of full vaccination at least 14 days before their departure date. They must also take a COVID-19 PCR test within 72 hours of their first departing flight from their home country or a rapid antigen test within 24 hours of the first flight and provide “laboratory-certified proof of negative result.” The company specifies that only certain at-home tests qualify for the travel requirement. Besides vaccination requirements, Viking is still taking further health precautions after cruises set sail. “Similar to many local guidelines currently in place, physical distancing measures are in place in public areas on board,” the company states in its health and safety program. “Face masks are required for all guests and crew members when moving around the ship.”
RELATED: For more up-to-date information, sign up for our daily newsletter. The latest policy also comes as other companies have followed suit in changing the requirements for passengers to be considered fully vaccinated before setting sail. Beginning March 1, luxury cruise lines Silversea, Azamara, and Lindblad have announced that they will also require all passengers who are eligible to have received COVID-19 booster shots before boarding and embarking, Travel + Leisure reports. While more companies are adopting the move to require booster shots, most cruise lines currently only require all or the vast majority of passengers to be fully vaccinated before setting sail, CNN reports. This includes Carnival and Royal Caribbean, which recommend that passengers get their booster shots but do not require them for boarding. In addition, many operators also require that passengers take a COVID test before departure regardless of vaccination status and enforce a mask mandate in all indoor public areas onboard. The policies were enacted as part of the CDC’s Conditional Sailing Order that allowed the industry to resume cruises after the pandemic kept them scuttled for more than a year. Despite the added security precautions, the CDC has currently still placed cruise travel in its top “Level 4: Very High” COVID-19 risk designation. The health agency advises against cruises at all costs, regardless of vaccination status, warning that “the virus that causes COVID-19 spreads easily between people in close quarters onboard ships, and the chance of getting COVID-19 on cruise ships is very high, even if you are fully vaccinated and have received a COVID-19 vaccine booster dose.“ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb The latest Omicron spike has also presented a fresh set of challenges for the industry. On Jan. 11, the CDC reported that COVID-19 cases on cruise ships sailing in American waters had jumped from a total of 162 in the first two weeks of December to 5,013 between Dec. 15 and 29. In late December and early January, more than 20 cruises operated by lines including Norwegian and Royal Caribbean were canceled or postponed, The Washington Post reported on Jan. 13. RELATED: People Without a Booster Will Be Barred From This, as of Feb. 1.
