180 cruise ship workers arrive home

A total of 180 Guyanese workers from the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, who were stuck off the coast of Barbados, returned home on Friday afternoon on an Eastern Airline flight.

The flight landed at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) at 16:30hrs; apart from the cruise ship workers, two other Guyanese were on the flight.

The cruise ship workers, along with the nationals who were struck in Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados, were originally scheduled to return on two Caribbean Airlines flights on June 11 but the flights were cancelled because the Ministry of Foreign Affairs failed to submit the list of passengers to the airlines 48 hours before the flight was scheduled to depart.

Caribbean Airlines ran an earlier flight Friday with 141 Guyanese passengers who were stuck in the islands.

Before boarding a flight, all passengers are required submit a repatriation form to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a negative COVID-19 test 48 hours before they travel.

Additionally, a mandatory 7-day quarantine is in effect, with the Surveillance Department of the Public Health Ministry ensuring that the nationals are in compliance.

With the arrival of the workers Friday afternoon it brings the total number of persons repatriated to 676.

Meanwhile, Director General of the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority Mr Egbert Field Friday told the News Room that the next repatriation flight out of the United States is expected sometime next week.