 The arrival of more than 200 St. Lucians who are employed by Carnival Corporation has gone smoothly. The St. Lucians employed on the Carnival Glory and Caribbean Princess were repatriated after weeks at sea. The Department of Health and Wellness on Friday 8 May 2020 received some 219th St. Lucians who worked aboard the cruise ships Carnival Glory and Caribbean Princess. The receipt falls under the government of St. Lucia's efforts to repatriate individuals unable to return home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These individuals were placed into quarantine for a period of 14 days as per the country's established protocol. Chief Environmental Officer in the Department of Health and Wellness Parker Raghnanan explained the process undertaken by the health team. We are doing two things. One is to looking at the medical records of the vessels and ensuring that there are no infectious diseases on board and that's part of the review of the maritime declaration. After that is done then clearance would be given for the vessel to disembark the nationals. Once the nationals disembark they would then be screened by our medical personnel here. The screening would take two forms. One is a temperature check will be done as well as monitoring for any visible signs of respiratory symptoms. If anybody poses such symptoms or elevated temperature they would be managed separately. It is expected that once they have cleared the health assessment that they would then board the transport that is provided specifically for them and they would be taken straight from here to the designated facility for quarantine. Quarantine is necessary for persons who are well with no symptoms of ill health but who may have been exposed to a communicable disease. It restricts the movement of healthy people who may develop a disease after possible exposure to an infectious agent like COVID-19. The individuals repatriated during the quarantine period will be monitored by healthcare specialists including temperature checks and assessment of respiratory symptoms routinely for the entire quarantine period. Minister for Tourism, Information and Broadcasting, Culture and Creative Industries and Chairman for the National COVID-19 Response Committee Hon. Dominic Fede said the government remains committed to getting all conclusions home. We applied a lot of pressure on the cruise lines to make sure that our citizens come home in the quickest possible time. Now we are bearing the cost as a government to do the quarantine. They are coming from the United States and so we want to make sure that they are monitored for a couple of days, two weeks is the quarantine time, 14 days and in monitoring them the Ministry of Health officials will get a better handle on their health situation and that will then allow us to allow them back into the community safe and sound with their loved ones. The good news is that a lot of the people which we have quarantined we see a very low rate of transmission coming from our quarantine facilities. So if the trend continues this batch of individuals are likely to come out with very limited COVID transmission. So we are delighted that they are home, we are thankful. As part of the national COVID-19 response, quarantine centres have been set up in St Lucia using various hotels to facilitate the large numbers of returning nationals through the repatriation process as well as any non-nationals that may arrive in the country. Institutional quarantine remains the standard for St Lucia. We hear from a St Lucia returning on his experience amid the COVID-19 pandemic. I believe I had a unique experience unlike most of my colleagues because of the departments I work with, I work with guest services. So up until yesterday I was still working. I know that a lot of persons may have had cabin fever and all of that but then particularly for me it was a very good experience. I know that the company did everything that they could. Before we moved from our respective ships to the Carnival Glory, I mean everybody was free to roam the ship as they would have wanted to. We were provided with meals and everything. The only downside is that when we moved from the other ships to Carnival Glory because of the co-mingling we had to move up in the level of security. So it moved up to drastic measures where you were quote-unquote confined to a cabin but you were still given the opportunity to go out, get vitamin D, socialise, of course with social distancing. I mean I'm just thankful to be here. The Department of External Affairs continues working with ambassadors to facilitate the safe return of nationals. This however is done ensuring that quarantine capacity is maintained. The governmental inclusion reaffirmed its commitment to getting all inclusion stuck abroad due to the COVID-19 pandemic home at the soonest.