FREE REIN

Appeals Court Lifts COVID Restrictions on Cruises in Florida as Hospitals Fill

The same day an order allowing cruise ships free rein came down, Florida hospitals were reaching new peak numbers of patients.

A federal appeals court has ruled against the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s coronavirus-related restrictions on cruise ships docking and departing from Florida. The 11th Circuit Court in Atlanta had backed the CDC, but an appeals panel withdrew its ruling late Friday. Florida’s attorney general Ashley Moody, who filed an appeal to the Supreme Court on behalf of the state, said she was pleased by the outcome. All cruises had been suspended in March 2020, and the CDC began talks with cruise operators about restarting operations in May. The same day the federal appeals court issued its ruling, The New York Times reported that hospitals across Florida were seeing more coronavirus patients than they had at their peak last year.