BELIZE CITY, Mon. Jan. 17, 2022– According to the chairman of the Belize Tourism Board (BTB), Evan Tillett, at least 12 cruise ships have canceled stops in Belize so far amid the new Omicron wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. He also told local media that some overnight cancellations have also been recorded, but the numbers are nowhere close to the number of canceled bookings that were seen at the start of the pandemic. He said that they are also seeing positive signs in the industry, since a number of persons are re-booking.

The Omicron variant is proving to be just as infectious as scientists had estimated it would be, with new outbreaks of the COVID-19 virus being seen worldwide. Fortunately, the symptoms resulting from infections brought on by this new variant are, in a majority of cases, comparatively mild, and infected persons are cleared of the illness in a much shorter period of time.

At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, when a no-sail order was put in place, the cruise tourism industry came to a standstill for almost a year, and a few months after the resumption of cruise ship visits to various tourist destinations, including Belize, the industry is now, in light of the Omicron-driven surge in cases, taking precautionary measures to avoid the type of shutdown that occurred in the initial stages of the pandemic.

Some cruise ships have thus opted to cancel their scheduled stops in Belize.

Last Saturday, the “conditional sailing order” put in place by the US Centers for Disease Control expired, and the agency transitioned to a new voluntary COVID-19 risk mitigation program for cruise ships. The new regulation includes mandatory vaccination for passengers and crew members, testing before boarding the vessel, and mandatory indoor mask-wearing by persons onboard ships except while they are eating or drinking.

The CDC has warned travelers to avoid going on cruises due to the Omicron variant. According to the agency, 14,803 positive cases of COVID-19 were reported between December 30 and January 12 on cruise ships — 95 times more cases than the 155 infections reported between Dec. 1 and Dec. 14.