A view of the Castries port.
A Guyanese-owned cargo vessel on which a crew member died and another fell ill and was hospitalised, will not be leaving the island today,March 11, 2014 as scheduled.
The Lady Zai, which was due to dock at the Vieux-Fort Seaport on Sunday, is now berthed in Castries where health, port and fire services personnel have been conducting investigations to determine the crew members’ cause of death and illness.
The Ministry of Health, Wellness, Human Services and Gender Relations in a press release, said it was notified of the arrival of the cargo vessel at about 4 a.m. on March 9, 2014.
According to reports, the man passed away on Saturday, March 8, while the vessel was still headed to St. Lucia. His body was transported to the Victoria Hospital for an emergency autopsy to be convened. That post mortem indicated that he suffered from a respiratory illness – pneumonia. In the meantime, the sick crew member was transported to the St. Jude’s Hospital. He is said to be recovering well.
There were a total of 10 crew members, including the dead and sick men. The rest of the crew members have been quarantined.
The vessel was carrying soya and corn products but none of these have been offloaded.