CaribbeanCruisingSt Lucia

Life in St Lucia during the corona virus

By April 23, 2020 No Comments

St Lucia is an island nation in the middle of the Eastern Caribbean. There have been 15 cases of Covid-19 within a population of 190,000. Which I think is really good. Below is a time line of the response from the St Lucia government.

March 13 – The first case was confirmed.

March 17 – Island was closed to all incoming boat traffic (freight excepted).

March 20 – Suspension of nonessential commercial activity and implementation of a curfew from 11pm to 5am each night.

March 23 – State of emergency declared and airport closed to incoming flights

March 29 – Curfew extended and changed to 8pm to 5am

March 31 – 24-hour curfew implemented confining all persons to their place of residence for 7 days (mini marts and bakeries open few limited hours to allow people to buy food)

April 7 – 24 hour curfew lifted and the island was back to essential business only and everyone has to wear a mask, stay 6 feet apart, and limit number of people in a store with a nightly curfew of 7pm to 5am.

April 10 – Lines at grocery stores finally subside (lines up to 3 hours long)

April 12 – 24 hour curfew enacted for Easter and Easter Monday.

April 14 – Essential business only, social distancing and masks required, and nightly curfew of 7pm to 5am.

Given that I am on the boat most of the time and not ashore I can not say for certain, but everyone seems calm and abiding by the social distancing rules. The only concern I had was the lines at the grocery stores after the 24 hour curfew was lifted. For three days the lines were three plus hours long, telling me that people were a little panicked to get food.

All said the restrictions have not been to bad and they seem to be working since the 15 reported cases were over two weeks ago. At this time they are saying the restrictions will be lifted April 26th, but I will not be surprised if they are extended until the end of May. This includes the ban on incoming boats and planes.

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