KINGSTOWN: St. Vincent and the Grenadines earlier this month denied an oil tanker entry into its territorial waters after being informed that two crew members were exhibiting symptoms of the deadly Ebola virus, Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves has said.
Gonsalves told Parliament that on Oct 14, he had received a call from the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of National Security, Godfred Pompey, indicating that the oil tanker, the Noble Spirit, had also been denied entry
into Jamaica because two Filipino nationals, who boarded the tanker at Houston, Texas on Oct 10, had a high fever and were vomiting.
Health authorities warn that high fever and vomiting are among the symptoms of the Ebola virus which has killed nearly 5,000 people in West Africa. There is no known cure.
Gonsalves who is also Minister of National Security, said the tanker was scheduled to call at the port here at 11.p.m. (local time) on Oct 14, and that he had instructed the Coastguard, the Signal Station and all the relevant
agencies that the vessel would not be permitted to enter St. Vincent and the Grenadines territorial waters.
“It turns out that when it came down from St. Lucia, we allowed it innocent passage, it changed its course and went to Barbados, and was not allowed to land in Barbados.”
Gonsalves told lawmakers that he didn’t consider it “necessary and desirable to talk to the people about that — certainly not at that time.”
He said that from the outside the waters of Barbados, the vessel went to Equatorial Guinea.
“Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members, you see the potential for harm. It (Ebola virus) would be on any vessel, which comes in at any place in our archipelago of islands.
Gonsalves also noted that last month, St. Vincent and the Grenadines banned entry for anyone coming out of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
“Well that is not strictly embraced by the WHO and we put in a regime of requiring a PCR Ebola test for anybody who leaves Nigeria, and you must have that test for no earlier than seven days after you have left the country,” he
said.
Gonsalves said St. Vincent and the Grenadines has put those things in place while the government is doing the education, training, and setting up the systems internally.
“We have to be on guard, and we have been vigilant from the beginning,” he told Parliament. -Bernama