7 News Belize

Cruise Ships Keep Coming
posted (March 12, 2020)

Looking more closely any the situation with cruise ships - Belize continues to receive them, and three were in port today.  It’s the decision by the government to  keep them coming at this time. Today the Prime Minster explained that the cruise lines do their own screening on board:

Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow - Prime Minister
"I read out earlier as you would have heard all the measures that in place with respect to screening passengers before they can even get on to a cruise ship. It is in those circumstances that as I said, recognizing the impact of just suddenly cutting off all cruise lines, the impact that would have on jobs and on the livelihoods of people like yourselves, that we have adopted for the moment a kind of wait and see attitude if you will. Things are perhaps never as good as they sound but certainly in terms of that W-H-O advisory bulletin as to all that is being done and the kind of assurance that the BTB derives from that. It does offer comfort, it does place us in a position where we can decide not to cut off cruise ships just yet and feel that decision is a rational one, that we're not playing fast and loose with you and with the citizens of this country. As of now, the decision is not to stop the cruise ships but if there are particular cruise ships that went elsewhere and were turned back - unless they were turn back for reasons of a blanket shutdown such as is happening in El Salvador. If there were particular reasons for suspicion that cause the cruise ship to return from other ports, very clearly we would turn them away from our port as well. There's also a protocol, I know the manifest are sent to us before hand and health personnel board those cruise ships before there is any kind of disembarkation, so that people could be tendered to Belize City or elsewhere and while I'm sure they can't examine every single person. Again, it is expected that as a matter of responsibility, the captain will inform of any cases that exhibit any sort of apparent symptoms."

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