Thousands of cruise ship crew members remain stuck at sea amid the coronavirus pandemic as their companies clash with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention over rules to bring them home.
Carnival Cruise Line said it has more than 10,000 healthy crew members on board their ships and is planning to have them home to their respective countries over the next week. Roughly 10,000 crew have already been repatriated, the company said in a press release.
Part of the reason crew members have been unable to disembark and travel home is a conflict regarding guidelines issued by the CDC, a situation first reported by The Miami Herald.
The agency will allow crew members to disembark only if the cruise line signs an agreement stating that it has complied with the CDC's requirements, which say the companies need to provide noncommercial transportation.
