US State Dept tells Americans to avoid Asia cruises
The US State Department has issued an advisory calling on Americans to avoid cruise ship vacations in Asia.
The advisory asks all US citizens to ‘reconsider travel by cruise ship to, or within Asia’.
It comes at a time when the mainstream cruise industry has shunned the region with few ocean cruise itineraries likely to operate over the next few months.
The State Department doesn’t want to be in the position of having to arrange repatriation flights home for cruisers following last week’s evacuation of passengers from the quarantined Diamond Princess in Japan.
The department said: "This is a dynamic situation and US citizens traveling by ship may be impacted by travel restrictions affecting their itineraries or ability to disembark, or may be subject to quarantine procedures implemented by the local authorities."
State Department official Ian Brownlee said: "While the US government has successfully evacuated hundreds of our citizens in recent weeks, such repatriation flights do not reflect our standard practice and should not be relied upon as an option for US citizens under potential risk of quarantine by local authorities."
Brownlee has been scrambling to justify the State Department’s handling of the evacuation process amid a reportedly ‘furious’ reaction from the President.
The evacuation of more than 300 Americans was put into motion but inexplicably before all test results had been received.
On the way to the airport the results came through with 14 more testing positive.
That has since risen to 18.
US officials in Japan ‘did exactly the right thing’ in putting coronavirus infected people on the same flight, Brownlee says, despite reports of conflict with health experts at the CDC who were vehemently against the idea.
They were overruled, according to sources cited by the Washington Post.
It angered President Trump who wasn’t informed until the flights had returned to the US.
He was reportedly livid as it could damage the government’s credibility in being able to handle a situation like this effectively.
CDC officials were even angrier and refused to be referenced in any public statement by the State Department as their expert advice was simply ignored, according to an email sent by the CDC’s principal deputy director, Anne Schuchat.
TravelMole Editorial Team
Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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