I have engaged the cruise lines to bring ships back to our shores safely, says Minister Grant

St Kitts and Nevis: Minister of Tourism, Lindsay Grant stated that the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis has made significant progress in reopening the cruise tourism sector with the introduction of approved antigen tests.

Minister Grant during his September 6 press conference said that “This approval allows us to be more competitive as a cruise destination while continuing our phased approach to rebuilding the cruise sector.”

He added that regionally, internationally and globally, St Kitts and Nevis has recently seen many changes in local and global industries. “We are now facing the highly transferable delta variant that is still rising all over the world,” said Minister Grant.

“Over the past few weeks, my team and I have been discussing the routes with the sole aim of bringing cruise ships back to our shores and doing so safely,” he said.

He also said that as the northern hemisphere enters another winter season, the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis need to expand the current cruise arrivals to supplement the airline arrivals, while the Federation still sees the restrictions reduced.

“My team and I, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and the COVID-19 task force, have worked tirelessly over the past few weeks to identify speed protocols that will enable us to build the cruise sector safely and reap the benefits expand on what has always been and is expected to be a profitable industry,” said the tourism minister.

Some of these sailing protocols involve: 95% of all crew on board the cruise ships must be fully vaccinated according to the CDC guidelines; All guests 12 years and older must be vaccinated for COVID-19 with a WHO or an FDA-approved vaccine so that the ship can enter port and individuals are considered fully vaccinated two weeks after a single dose in a single dose range. and it is for the Johnson and Johnson or the last dose in a two-dose series from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Oxford- AstraZeneca, Sinopharm or Sinovac.