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Basseterre, St. Kitts, August 6, 2021 (SKNIS): The Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis will not receive cruise ships until vaccination and testing protocols can be identified.

This was stated by the Minister of Tourism, Transport and Ports, Honourable Lindsay Grant, during a tourism press conference on August 6, 2021, at the Arrivals Hall at Port Zante. 

He said, “In May, the CDC’s (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) no sail order placed a halt on cruising from the United States and cruise lines in their best interest decided to resume cruising from the Caribbean and Caribbean homeports.”

“Governor DeSantis in Florida and the CDC are currently in an ongoing court battle to prevent the CDC from enforcing guidelines that restrict the resumption of cruise homeporting in Florida,” said Minister Grant.

He said that Caribbean homeporting is no longer an option and that Florida is now the main homeport for the majority of the Federation’s cruises.

Because Florida currently allows the vaccinated and unvaccinated to cruise and the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis has not yet achieved herd immunity, Minister Grant said that he does not want to jeopardize the health of the two-island nation.

“The Government of St. Kitts and Nevis is trying to find a delicate balance between the economics and the health of our country,” the Minister of Tourism said. “For the month of August, therefore, the calls of the Allure and Symphony of the Seas have been cancelled.”

To date, there has been the successful call of the Seabourn Odyssey on three separate occasions with the travel-approved bubble vaccination tours being very effective.