The Grenada government says it will only allow fully vaccinated visitors to enter the country both at the air and seaports, as the island moves to introduces more measures aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) here that has so far infected 161 people and killed one other since March last year.
“We have intensified our discussions with the Ministry of Health [and] being involved in tourism and having seen the suffering of the tour operators, of the vendors, of everybody else, my first impulse is to take what you get, but this is not ordinary times,” Minister of Tourism Dr Clarice Modeste said.
But she acknowledged “this is COVID times and therefore, with us being led by the Ministry of Health, they are insisting that 100 per cent of our guests must be fully vaccinated”.
She told reporters at the Grenada Tourism Authority (GTA) news conference that the health authorities “want to make sure that all of the T’s are cross and the I’s are dotted, and that Grenada’s protocol and requirements are being adhere to.
“The main thing is everybody has to be fully vaccinated,” she said in response to a question about the resumption of cruise ships selecting Grenada as a stop off destination.
Already Seaborne, which is home-based in Barbados, is due to berth here later this month, becoming the first cruise ship to call in Grenada after the island entered into a lockdown status in March 2020.
The policy of only fully vaccinated will be granted permission to enter the country will also extend to stay over passengers entering through the airport but there will be an exception for returning nationals.
“We cannot put those conditions for Grenadians, the terms and conditions for Grenadians will have to be different,” Modeste said.
The current policy is that all visitors who are fully vaccinated will only be required to spend no more than 48 hours in quarantine. All incoming passengers who are fully vaccinated, that is having received two doses of an approved vaccine, are mandated to do an on-island PCR COVID-19 test.
Once the test is negative, the individual will be allowed to mingle with the citizens. A positive result will result in the person remaining in quarantine.
People with only one dose of the vaccination are required to spend up to seven days in quarantine and must test negative before they are allowed to mingle with citizens.
The health authorities say they are aware of people using fake documents and are examining documents for authenticity. Several incoming passengers have been charged for presenting falsified documents to immigrations and health authorities.
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