Forty-four stranded cruise ship workers and 16 Dominican students in Jamaica will be repatriated home today, said Health Minister Dr. Irving McIntyre. Last week, about 17 cruise ship employees were returned home to Dominica after several months on the seas in the midst of the ravaging coronavirus pandemic.
The Skerrit-led administration made concerted efforts with stakeholders in the shipping industry to repatriate these workers home, as well as Dominican students studying overseas given the negative challenges of COVID-19. The former 17 ship workers were taken straight to quarantine in Portsmouth following their arrival in the country, and the coming batch of 44 workers and 16 students will be quarantined as well to monitor their health situation.
“We got 16 or 17 last week, and this week we are going to get another 44 Dominican crew members from the cruise ship industry,” said McIntyre. “This will bring them to a total of 60+ and obviously we are going to get our students home and other Dominicans who got trapped outside who want to come home. Our quarantine facility is functioning once again, and it is going to be like that for some time because many Dominicans want to come home.”
The health minister noted that his ministry might try to reduce the period of mandatory quarantine from 14 days to lesser if PCR tests can be done in record time. The quarantine facilities in the country had been near empty for a few days before the first batch of ship workers arrived, and this is because there have been no new cases or suspected cases in the country. The government said they will continue to review measures to ensure that Dominica remains COVID-19-free forever.
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