Editor’s note: Travellers who in the past 14 days have been in China, Italy, Iran, South Korea, or Germany, will not be allowed to enter Grenada. Exempted are nationals and residents of Grenada, who will be quarantined for 14 days on arrival. This article originally stated incorrectly that the travel ban is based on nationality rather than travel history.
by Linda Straker
- Grenada will be refusing travellers from Italy, Iran, South Korea and Germany from midnight
As part of preparedness measures to reduce the possibility of having Covid-19 positive cases, as of midnight 10 March 2020, Grenada will be refusing travellers from Italy, Iran, South Korea and Germany – 4 countries where hundreds are positively diagnosed with coronavirus.
On 2 February, Grenada announced that it was restricting travellers from China. Health Minister, Nickolas Steele, said that Grenada has been quarantining non-nationals, but from midnight it would be different. “From midnight we will be refusing entry,” he said while pointing out that the implications will be significant for the cruise ship industry.
Last week Tuesday in a national address, Prime Minister, Dr Keith Mitchell, said that intense discussions have been taking place among relevant stakeholders, and government has now made available an additional $2 million to bolster our Covid-19 preparedness actions.
“We will not spare any effort in ensuring that all the necessary measures are in place to protect our country and therefore, we stand prepared to increase that figure if it becomes necessary, as the situation unfolds. These are significant resources and we must demonstrate full accountability in all that we do,” he said in an address aired on radio, television and various social media and online news sites.
He also said that the time has clearly come for Grenada to move past the ban imposed on persons specifically coming from China, because the disease is now present in more than 60 countries around the world. “The threat becomes even greater now because evidently, not all countries are enforcing strict measures to protect their borders, therefore, we must continue to do all that is necessary to safeguard our country and our people,” he told the nation.
As of Monday, the whole of Italy with its millions in population was declared a red zone and the entire country was placed under quarantine. On Monday evening, the Korean Yonhap News Agency said that 2 more countries have joined the list of countries and territories imposing entry restrictions or tougher quarantine procedures on people from South Korea over coronavirus concerns, putting the tally at 106.
As of 2 pm Monday, Grenada and Barbados were added to the list of 47 countries and territories requiring or recommending self-quarantine and imposing stricter immigration controls for people who have been in Korea at least in the past 2 weeks, according to the ministry website.
As of early Monday, 1,634 South Koreans have been quarantined around the world. Of that number 1,149 were in China and 451 were in Vietnam. On Sunday, South Korea added 248 new infections cases, bringing the tally to 7,382 with 51 deaths. Iran has also had increasing positive cases and deaths from the coronavirus. Deaths include government ministers.
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I am a Grenadian and I agree with the steps.that has been taking the health and well being of the people comes before tourism many people in Grenada cannot afford a doctor’s visit or medicine. So please don’t ask them to calm down.Hurricane destroy the tourism industry before they all survived they will be fine again.FYi he didn’t say all countries ,he specfy.who won’t just as the rest of the world Airlines has canceled flights to these countries.
I wish Grenadian’s would just calm down, and listen to the experts from the WHO, and doctors that have expertise in this field. A panicked reaction is what we are seeing in Grenada, there are over 100 countries with COVID-19 cases. Closing the borders to all is ridiculous, and will NOT stop the virus from coming to the island. You want to completely destroy tourism on the island, from which they will never recover. That makes no sense. What they are doing at the airport is perfectly adequate, and I will be coming from Canada, where they check your temperature before you even get on the plane. In fact, about 80% of people who get this virus have mild symptoms, and the concern is for the elderly and those with underlying health issues, i.e. lung and heart issues. Let’s all calm down and carry on.
Strongly agree !
I am a Grenadian and I agree with the steps.that.has been taking the health and well being of the people comes before tourism many people in Grenada cannot afford a doctor’s visit or medicine. So please don’t ask them to calm down.Hurricane destroy the tourism industry before they all survived they will be fine again.FYi he didn’t say know countries he specfy.who wont.
Does your surname give you the right to act like Grenadians are stupid for having their beliefs.
Flying should only be permitted to those who must fly for emergencies, death, medical reasons, medical personnel etc
You have to be including China as well Mr Prime minister China has the highest level of Covid 19 cases along with many others so please do your research properly ok,You should not be accepting anyone in period,you can not be putting the lives of the entire NATION in danger unnecessarily Mr Prime Minister.
USA needs to be added now. In fact why don’t we just close our borders now before it’s too late?
Germany does not border Italy, France does.
France has more cases of Corona virus and 6 death versus 2 in Germany, so why are the French not being denied entry to Grenada.
Has somebody made a mistake here ??
More clarification is necessary: What is with other nationals which are for example in transit in Germany for a couple of hours, waiting for their connection flight to Grenada?
Why is Germany on the the list, many other countries with a higher death toll, does not make any sense
Some clarification is needed. Are we talking about people arriving by airlines and cruise ships only? What about “nationals” who have lived in other countries e.g. Canada, or nationals arriving by private sailing vessels?
And of course the US isn’t on the list ♂️
Why isn’t America on that list ,right USA have a serious
raise in cases and more is expected in days due to lack of testing ,matter a fact the world should be on that list,we need to open our eyes.