The meeting scheduled between cruise line executives and White House officials has been postponed.
A meeting had been set up between the cruise lines and Vice President Mike Pence on Friday to discuss the No Sail order extension, but it is being reported that meeting has been postponed.
VP Pence meeting with #cruise executives has now been postponed https://t.co/MtBcH6CBPQ
— Seema Mody (@seemacnbc) October 2, 2020
No reschedule date for the meeting has been announced.
Earlier this week, it was revealed the White House overruled the U.S. Center for Disease Control's recommendation to extend the No Sail Order until February. Instead, the order was extended through just the end of October.
In addition, a meeting was set up for Friday afternoon between representatives of the cruise industry and the Trump administration to, "describe their transformation and dozens of ways that they will mitigate risk and ensure public health," according to a White House official.
And in that meeting there will be a discussion and afterwards a decision will need to be made about whether the order needs to be extended," the White House official added. "These things can be extended for a month and then we can reassess the conditions on an ongoing basis."
One senior official added that the cruise ship decision "is an example of the task force weighing all the equities of the departments and agencies represented on the task force and making a decision that properly balances the public health impacts and the economic ramifications on the country."
The CDC believes cruise ships would create an unacceptable amount of risk to the public health if allowed to resume sailings.
"Cruise ships continue to be an unsafe environment with close quarters where the disease spreads easily and is not readily detected," is the direct rationale for why cruise ships may not sail.
"Cruise ships continue to be an unsafe environment with close quarters where the disease spreads easily and is not readily detected," is the direct rationale for why cruise ships may not sail.
In short, the CDC sees these factors as necessitating the extension of the No Sail Order:
- The continued spread of the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide
- Risk of resurgence in countries that have suppressed transmission
- Ongoing concerns related to restarting of cruising internationally
- Need for additional time to assess industry measures to control potential SARS-CoV-2 transmission on board cruise ships with passengers without burdening public health
