Can or will the Corona virus come to Bequia?
Update 1st March: The plane from Milan has landed in Martinique without passengers from Italy. It went to Martinique to pick up the Italian passengers that were disembarking from the cruiseship laa Preziosa in Martinique. That same ship that had Italian passengers is still scheduled to visit Kingstown this Friday...
26th February: With the coronavirus is now spreading rapidly around the world, is it time for the government to start putting port restrictions in place?As of this writing South/Central America has been unaffected by the corona virus apart form an unconfirmed case in Brazil. There is however an increasing threat of the virus entering the Eastern Caribbean and thus Bequia.
On Saturday the 29th of February a plane from Milan filled with passengers from Northern Italy will land in Martinique. The passengers will be boarding a ship from the MSC cruise line, which will visit all the Windward islands South of Martinque, including Kingstown.
The MSC Preziosa has been coming to the port of Kingstown weekly this season, with many of the passengers taking day excursions to Bequia with the Wind and Sea catamaran.
Next scheduled call to the port of Kingstown is the 6th of March with those passengers from Italy that were on that flight from Milan.
In Martinique there are calls for demonstrations at the airport on Saturday and at the Health agency ARS this evening.
The ARS responded that there is no reason to prohibit the flight to land in Martinique, they will distribute flyers instructing passengers what to do in case of symptoms, and masks.....
The Cayman Islands and Jamaica have already refused entry to a different ship from this same MSC cruise line, the Meraviglia.
An interactive map of current port restrictions and closures updated 3 times a day can be found here:
Map with Port restrictions
Click on any circle to see current measures in place.
