(Trinidad Express) As Trinidad and Tobago takes steps to prevent the deadly Ebola from reaching its shores, the United Kingdom registered cargo ship Ocean Discovery was yesterday prevented from docking at the Chaguaramas port.
The Ocean Discovery had traversed at least two ports in Africa before arriving in Trinidad yesterday and was scheduled to dock at the Chaguaramas port near Crew’s Inn around 3 p.m.
However, Immigration sources, Customs officials and port health workers said because of the Ebola threat in West Africa, they have refused to allow the ship carrying cargo and passengers to dock here.
“The crew and passengers are made up of several different nationalities some from various countries in Africa,” one source said.
The cargo ship’s last two ports of entry reveals that on September 13, the ship docked at the port of Pointe Noire in Congo and ten days later it docked at the Western city port of Ghana, Sekondi Takoradi.
Ghana is fairly near to Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone—three of the countries that have accounted for the majority of the Ebola deaths that have climbed to over 4,400 so far.
Ghana however, has no reported cases of the virus to date, but their close neighbours Nigeria has reported several cases of the deadly Ebola virus.
An Immigration official said, “We were concerned about the ship docking at the Chaguaramas port near Crew’s Inn because of the potential risk.”
Port health workers were later summoned, and their authority in this case overrides any decision made by Immigration officials.
Sources say there was no intention up to press time to allow the ship to dock at the port.
The vessel, sources say, remains out at sea between Venezuela and Trinidad.
Speaking in Tobago yesterday, Public Services Association (PSA) president Watson Duke called on the Prime Minister to ensure the Ocean Discovery does not dock in Trinidad. He also urged the authorities to conduct investigations on another ship that is scheduled to arrive from the US next week.
“This could be the case that we want to avoid Ebola has now evolved. It is no longer 21 days, it is 45 days incubation period and we must take this seriously,” he said.
