Basseterre: St Kitts and Nevis will create a bubble at Port Zante, welcoming the Celebrity Equinox with over 1,400 passengers to resume the cruise tourism in the country.
Abdias Samuel, Chair of the National COVID-19 Task Force, said that the bubble would include service providers who are fully vaccinated will be allowed to operate in the bubble. Moreover, the service providers who underwent the travel approved seal training with the Ministry of Health and St Kitts and Tourism Authority will be allowed to operate within the bubble.
Samuel said that inspections would also be carried out on all businesses to verify the service providers in Port Zante. He also urged service providers to get in touch with St Kitts Tourism Authority concerning all other information related to operation and certification processes.
On September 14, St Kitts and Nevis will welcome cruise tourism in the country with an official stop of Celebrity Equinox cruise in their 2021/2022 itinerary. The Celebrity Equinox is part of Celebrity cruises which operates under the Royal Caribbean Group.
The protocols include:
- All cruise passengers aged 12 or older must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 with the world health organisation (WHO) or US food and drug administration (FDA) approved vaccination. However, in case of emergency contractors required for the critical necessity of ship maintenance can be exempted from the vaccination requirements, which also includes any kind of medical or religious exemptions granted to applicable law; these requirements will be in effect till December 31, 2021.
- According to the Federation, persons who have received their second dose of vaccination and two weeks have passed would be considered as fully vaccinated individuals.
- Persons who are unvaccinated and are over the age of 12 would be required to submit a negative RT-PCR test report 72 hours before embarkation of the ship at home port.
- Passengers who are unvaccinated would be required to be get tested by the cruise line at the terminal on the day of embarkation at the home port using the RT PCR tests to confirm negative results against coronavirus.
- 95% of all crew on board the cruise must be fully vaccinated and all crew members servicing guests on the cruise must be fully vaccinated.
- Strictly, all individuals who test positive for COVID-19 are not to board the cruise in any case.
