By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

TOURISM, Investments and Aviation Minister Chester Cooper revealed COVID-19 protocols for cruise line visitors have been gazetted and are already in effect, bringing them on board with guidelines in place for air travellers.

He said cruise lines are now required to put these guidelines in place and have the procedures validated and approved by the Ministry of Health.

This news comes after relaxations of COVID protocols for travellers entering the country.

In June, Health and Wellness Minister Dr Michael Darville announced the government would remove its COVID-19 testing requirement for vaccinated people entering The Bahamas that month.

“The protocols for cruise lines, harmonising them with air arrivals came into effect I believe yesterday,” Mr Cooper told reporters before the weekly Cabinet meeting.

“This has been gazetted. I can provide a copy of this but in effect what happens now is that if you are vaccinated, you require no test to enter the country. If you’re unvaccinated, you require a PCR or a rapid antigen test. This has now been harmonised for cruise arrivals as well as air arrivals.

“Cruise lines (are) now required to put in place and have the procedures validated and approved by the Ministry of Health. We want to ensure that there’s proper monitoring and surveillance of passengers onboard and we want to ensure that they have appropriate protocols and facilities onboard to handle positive COVID cases. So because of the prolonged stay of passengers onboard we considered some additional requirements for cruise lines but suffice to say for entry we’ve harmonised the requirements.”

Mr Cooper had also previously announced that the travel health visa will no longer be needed. However, unvaccinated people will still be required to produce a negative COVID-19 test before arrival in the country.

Yesterday, he said the cruise business is important to the country.

“The Bahamas is a leader in the cruise business. We have been at the forefront of developing regulations for cruising during the pandemic – we’ve led the way. We work hand-in-hand with the cruise lines. We considered them our partners. We will continue this stride forward.

“We’re blessed with proximity to the US. We’re attracting some five million cruise port passengers to our shores. We anticipate that this number is going to match five million closely this year and probably exceed it next year.”