Health Minister Nicholas Steele Tuesday confirmed that a taxi-driver, who helped an incoming passenger from New York breach the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic protocols, was suspended from working at the Maurice Bishop International Airport.
“The taxi driver has been suspended…The privilege to be working at the airport, trained and given that opportunity to earn an income while keeping us safe, he took that for granted,” Steele told reporters at the end of the weekly Cabinet meeting.
“That privilege and that right to work in that environment has been removed from a health standpoint,” said Steele who explained that any form of criminal charge or charges will be the responsibility of the police and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
On Monday, the police said that Pat Bruno, a Grenadian-American citizen was arrested and charged for violating the island’s COVID-19 regulations after he failed to go into quarantine in keeping with the regulations.
“The individual arrived in Grenada on Saturday 15th May 2021, boarded a taxi that took him to Mardigras, St George, where he allegedly mingled with several members of that community and surrounding areas, instead of proceeding to his approved quarantine site. He was later arrested and charged by officers of the Criminal Investigation Department,” the police said in a statement.
Bruno was later granted EC$2 000 (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cents) bail and will appear at the St George’s Magistrate’s Court on May 20.
He has since tested negative for the COVID-19 virus.
The quarantine regulations which were approved by the House of Representatives in September 2020 state that a person who is guilty of an offence under the Act shall be liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding EC$10 000.
