Charter flight passengers refused entry

by Linda Straker

• Passengers of charter flight with Chinese businesspeople refused entry
• 2 passengers were recently in China and Singapore

Health Minister Nickolas Steele said that Grenada did not allow travellers to disembark from a charter flight with Chinese businesspeople because two of the passengers were recently in China and Singapore. “Grenada still has a travel restriction in place for anyone who travelled there and so we had to act accordingly.”

Steele confirmed the plane which landed at Maurice Bishop International Airport (MBIA) with 7 passengers didn’t come directly from China to Grenada, but stopped in the Cape Verde islands.

“We are also on high alert in Grenada and the rest of the region and that also required us to be provided with additional information about the passengers when submitting manifest requirements, and what we received guided us in making the decision to have them not disembark,” he added.

The flight with its passengers continued to Barbados which currently has no travel restrictions in place for Covid-19, but provides screening for high temperature and other symptoms of all arriving passengers.

This is the third charter flight with Chinese businesspeople to arrive in Grenada since the coronavirus became a global health concern. The passengers of the first two were allowed to disembark because they were not considered a health risk. The first came from Beijing and the second from Panama. It is not clear if they are on China state business with state officials or private sector representatives in the region.