The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The Nassau Container Port’s operator yesterday revealed that it has extended its quarantine period and restricted shore leave for cargo vessel crew members to help combat the corinavirus.

Dion Bethell, president and chief executive of BISX-listed Arawak Port Development (APD) Company, told Tribune Business: “For each and every vessel you know our focus is cargo, and we import pretty much everything that comes by ocean freight for Nassau through our facility.

“The vessel is required to make a booking in advance of arrival, so we require some critical information that we ask them to provide us with in advance of their call. One of the more important pieces of information is a DOH, which is a declaration of health.

“We also ask that they confirm that none of their crew members have been in any of the listed countries, which is China, Iran, Italy and South Korea, within the last 30 days. I know most people say the quarantine time is 14 days, but we have extended ours to 30 days just to be on the safe side,” Mr Bethell added.

“We restrict shore leave for any of the crew members, and we also ask that they advise us if anyone would have been sick since the DOH would have been issued. It’s always about the health and safety of the nation. Sometimes the Ministry of Health and their port medical officer, Dr Julian Smith, is on call and we have the protocols in place to be able to contact them.”

Mr Bethel said APD has not “had any issues” relating to the Covid-19 virus. He added that cargo coming from Asia takes about six to eight weeks to arrive, which is well beyond the quarantine period.

Speaking directly to the potential fall-off in cargo coming from the worst-hit countries, he added: “It’s hard to tell at this point because a lot of the cargo that comes from China, because of the long voyage, a lot of it was planted through Freeport and then to Nassau.

“But at this point I haven’t seen any significant fall-off on the cargo commodities that really come out of China. Mind you, a whole lot of stuff that comes out of China comes through the United States, but that direct cargo that comes out of China it is difficult to say at this point. I am sure there has been some, but the full impact hasn’t been seen yet in terms of our overall volumes.”

Vernice Walkine, the Nassau Airport Development Company’s (NAD) executive director, said: “As a major port of entry we have certain procedures that we have to implement according to the situation.

“We sit on the Ministry of Health task force to deal with matters of Covid-19, so we work very closely with the Ministry with respect to the procedures that are required for the people who are arriving at the airport and for people who are departing the airport. Those procedures have been in effect for quite some time now.

“We have a sustained campaign where we speak to all of the employees at this airport - and there are some 3,000 or so on any given day with shifts and what have you - to make sure everybody abides by the steps that are critical for their personal protection, like the frequent washing of hands, use of hand sanitizer and those kinds of things.”

Ms Walkine added: “As an airport we have responded by putting in additional hand sanitizer stations, making sure that we don’t run out of soap, making sure that our cleaning technicians are up there in our protocols in terms of the cleaning of our solid surfaces, hand rails, latches, handles and door handles, those kinds of things.

“We have a very aggressive programme in place, and we speak regularly to all of the employees at this airport to remind everyone of what they have to do personally - not just here at the airport but at home.

“Anyone who is sick, presents with any of the classic symptoms, flu or otherwise, we encourage them to stay at home so that they don’t spread it to anyone else. So I think overall we are in a good place as an airport.”