SOLOMON Islands has one of the best pre-departure screening processes for incoming travelers and incoming vessels anywhere in the world.
Speaking in during his weekly nationwide address, Monday, Prime Minister (PM) Manasseh Sogavare said he was been informed about that, and this is where the country’s strength lies.
“Because our capacity to manage community transmission is limited, our focus is to stop the virus entering the country or eliminating it at the border quarantine stations.
“The current suspension on incoming passengers has allowed us to review and reset these measures to make them even more effective considering the virulence of the Delta Variant of Covid-19,” he said.
In addition to that, PM Sogavare said a new shipping advisory will be released later this week outlining new measures for some classes of foreign vessels coming into the country or domestic ships that travel out of the country and return to the country.
“On this note let me reassure you all that every single foreign vessel that enters our country undergoes a Covid-19 risk assessment by the Oversight Committee’s Vessel Exemption Committee.
“This committee determines the level of risk on the vessel and makes decisions in relation to the timing of inward clearance,” he said.
Further to that he said, where the committee has concerns about COVID-19 it can authorize COVID-19 testing to be done on some or all crew members before inward clearance is authorized.
By FOLLET JOHN
Newsroom, Honiara
