Revised Laws of Saint Lucia (2023)

PART 1
INTRODUCTORY

1.   Citation

These Regulations may be cited as the Quarantine (Maritime) Regulations.

2.   Interpretation

In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires—

“Act” means the Quarantine Act;

“aëdes” means aedes œgypti and any potential mosquito vectors of yellow fever;

“approved port” means a port or place in which a health officer is authorised by the Governor General to grant deratisation certificates and deratisation exemption certificates;

“authorised officer” means a person authorised to act as such in the case in question by virtue of an order made under regulation 3;

“Convention” means the International Sanitary Convention signed at Paris on 21 of June 1926, as modified by the International Sanitary Convention, 1944, of which relevant extracts are set out in the Appendix;

“crew” includes any person who has duties on board the ship in connection with a voyage or employed in any way in the service of the ship, the passengers or the cargo;

“day” means an interval of 24 hours;

“deratisation certificate” and “deratisation exemption certificate” mean respectively a deratisation certificate or a deratisation exemption certificate issued under regulations 26 and 27 or otherwise issued in conformity with Article 28 of the Convention;

“foreign port” means a port or place situated elsewhere than in Saint Lucia;

“health officer” means the appropriate officer appointed as such under section 3 of the Act, and includes a medical practitioner acting under the direction of the Quarantine Authority or a health officer for the purpose of executing these Regulations or any of them;

“immune”, in relation to yellow fever, means that the person in question produces a certificate to the satisfaction of the health officer issued by a medical officer or institution recognised by the Quarantine Authority—

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   (a)     to the effect that the bearer has been inoculated for the first time more than 10 days and less than 4 years previously;

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   (b)     to the effect that he or she has been reinoculated within the past 4 years; or

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   (c)     to the effect that he or she has recovered from an attack of yellow fever and that his or her blood contains immune bodies against yellow fever as proved by a test carried out by an institution regularly carrying out biological tests for yellow fever;

“infected area”, “infected port”, “infected place” and “infected local area” mean a local area in which the health officer has reason to believe that—

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   (a)     a first case of plague recognised as non-imported has occurred; or in which rodent plague exists or has existed during the previous 6 months;

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   (b)     cholera has formed a foyer, that is to say that the occurrence of new cases beyond the immediate surroundings of the first case proves that the spread of the disease has not been limited to the place where it began;

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   (c)     a first case of yellow fever recognized as non-imported has occurred; or

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   (d)     typhus or smallpox exists in epidemic form, that is to say that the occurrence of new cases indicates that the spread of the disease is not under control; and includes a port or sea-board which serves an infected local area;

“infectious disease” means any epidemic or acute infectious disease, and includes open pulmonary tuberculosis but does not include venereal disease;

“isolation” means the removal to a hospital or other suitable place approved by the health officer of a person suffering, or suspected to be suffering, from an infectious disease, and his or her detention therein, until, in the opinion of the health officer—

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   (a)     he or she is free from infection; or

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   (b)     if not so free, he or she may be discharged without undue danger to public health;

“local area” means a well defined area such as a province, district, island, town or quarter of a town, port or village, whatever may be its extent or population;

“master”, “port” and “ship” have the meanings assigned to them in section 2 of the Act;

“observation” means the detention under medical supervision of persons in such places and for such periods as may be directed by a health officer;

“passenger” means any person, other than a member of the crew, carried in a ship;

“period of incubation” for the purpose of these Regulations is considered to be—

“Quarantine Authority” means the Quarantine Authority established under the powers conferred by section 3 of the Act;

“specified infectious disease” means plague, cholera, yellow fever, typhus and smallpox;

“suitably equipped port” in relation to any disease means a port recognized by the Quarantine Authority as possessing the necessary organisation and equipment for dealing with that disease;

“surveillance” means that persons are not detained, that they may move about freely, but that they are required to report for medical examination at such intervals and during such period and to such persons as may be directed by a health officer;

“valid” in relation to a deratisation certificate or deratisation exemption certificate means issued within the last preceding 6 months, or, where the ship in respect of which the certificate is issued is proceeding to its home port, the last preceding 7 months;

“visiting officer” means the appropriate officer appointed as such under section 3 of the Act or a person authorised to act as such in the case in question by virtue of an order made under regulation 3, and includes a health officer where the context so permits.

3.   Officers

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   (1)   The Quarantine Authority may by order authorise any officer or person or any member of a class of officers or persons to act as a visiting officer or as an authorised officer for the purposes of these Regulations or for some specified purpose of these Regulations.

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   (2)   Every such officer or person shall exercise his or her powers and perform his or her duties subject to the general or special direction and control of the Quarantine Authority and the health officer.