by Linda Straker
- Grenada did not grant a cruise ship permission to berth in St George’s on 10 February
- Ship was denied entry in other islands including Trinidad & Tobago
- More than 2% of the passengers were infected with a gastrointestinal outbreak
Health Minister Nickolas Steele has confirmed that Grenada did not grant a cruise ship permission to berth in St George’s because it had surpassed the accepted percentage of unwell passengers onboard.
“Over the last 48 to 72 hours, we have some issues in the region as a whole with two cruise ships. One, in particular, had a request – was asking to make a call to Grenada and we did not grant permission to disembark or even come to the port here,” he shared, without naming the cruise ship. “That was because more than 2% of the passengers were infected with a gastrointestinal outbreak, not upper respiratory tract [outbreak].”
He explained the standard health procedure for allowing a cruise ship to berth. “It is normal that if a cruise ship or any vessel has more than 2% of its crew infected, that we will deny permission to come ashore or disembark. Under 2%, the individuals are quarantined on the ship and the vessel did meet that.”
Steele confirmed that the cruise ship which made the request was not originally scheduled to be in St George’s, and the request came after it was denied entries in other islands including Trinidad and Tobago.
“This was an unscheduled call we received and did not grant the permission,” the Health Minister said after it was pointed out to him that the cruise ship list which is published by the Grenada Tourism Authority showed 10 February 2020 as a cruise ship-free day.
The Ministry of Health in Trinidad and Tobago said in a statement on the weekend that “The MV Caribbean Princess which was scheduled to arrive in Port of Spain on Monday, 10 February was denied entry due to an outbreak of gastroenteritis onboard the vessel.”
Caribbean Princess left Port Everglades on 2 February for a 14-night Southern Caribbean cruise. The scheduled itinerary, half of which was completed, was to see the ship stopping at St Thomas, St Maarten, St Kitts, Martinique, Barbados, Trinidad, Bonaire, and Aruba. The ship will now return to Port Everglades on 13 February 2020.
I am very proud of that decision
Well done you done the right thing by not allowing the Ship entrance to Grenada. As this was not even their port of call.
Well done, don’t want the whole of Grenadians falling sick
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