In line with the easing of general health requirements for the population, the Ministry of Health has updated the health protocols for international cruise ships operating in Spanish ports. This new update, in effect since April 8th and replacing the one from March of this year, significantly relaxes the operational requirements for cruise lines.
The most significant changes are:
- The requirement to maintain a percentage of isolation cabins on ships is eliminated.
- No pre-boarding or pre-disembarkation tests are required
- Preventive quarantines will not be mandatory for crew members embarking for the first time, nor will testing be required during the cruise.
- It will not be mandatory to have hotels for "quarantines" on land.
- The requirement for passengers to fill out the PLF or any other form upon arrival in Spain has been removed.
Spain was still one of the countries in the area with the most restrictive measures.
The Ministry of Health document states that two years after the WHO declared COVID-19 a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, the current pandemic situation has changed radically. Currently, the characteristics of the Omicron variant, along with high levels of population immunity, have created a scenario of high community transmission, but with a decrease in the severity of the disease. The last few months in Spain have been characterized by very high cumulative incidence rates that have not been accompanied by a strain on the healthcare system, as in previous pandemic waves.
This situation has led to a radical change in the surveillance and control of the disease, moving from a strategy focused on reducing the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 to avoid a high number of severe cases, to a strategy that monitors and directs actions towards people and areas of greater vulnerability and monitors severe cases of COVID-19, as well as in vulnerable areas and people.
Shipping companies, for their part, will maintain their own prevention and mitigation measures for the benefit of the health and well-being of crews, passengers and the destinations visited, so not all of them may stop doing the tests on board or they may maintain them due to protocols of other countries visited on the same itinerary.
