MIAMI, Florida: The spread of the Covid Omicron variant has caused Norwegian Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean to temporarily halt a number of scheduled cruises.

Royal Caribbean reported that it was cancelling cruises on three of its ships beginning January 8 and postponing voyages on a fourth ship until March 7.

This follows an earlier announcement by Norwegian that it was cancelling voyages on eight cruise ships, nearly half its fleet, due to the spreading of the Omicron variant among the crew on the Norwegian Pearl.

At the outbreak of the Covid pandemic in March 2020, the cruise industry closed for over one year.

However, the fast spreading Omicron variant is again radically reducing the number of passengers on cruise lines.