Published on : Thursday, May 2, 2019
On Monday the officials ordered 300 passengers and crew members not to leave the ship after determining one female crew member had contracted measles.
The Pan American Health Organisation and Caribbean Public Health Agency are working with St. Lucian officials, said Dr. Merlene Fredericks-James, the island nation’s chief medical officer.
“Because of the risk of the potential infection, not just from the confirmed measles case, but from other persons who may be on the boat at the time, we thought it prudent to make a decision not to let anyone disembark,” Fredericks-James said in a video posted Wednesday on YouTube.
The quarantine comes amid a surge of cases, largely among unvaccinated people in New York City, suburban Rockland County, New York, and Washington state.
St. Lucian authorities cannot keep the ship from leaving or determine its next destination, Fredericks-James said. The organisation reported the ship is scheduled to leave late Thursday.
In her statement, Fredericks-James reminded residents of the island to get themselves and their children vaccinated from the highly contagious viral infection – especially if they travel to and from the United States.