Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley announced during a speech to update the country on the COVID-19 situation that ‘persons fully vaccinated with a negative PCR test coming from Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Anguilla, Montserrat, British Virgin Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, Cayman Islands and Bermuda can enter immediately without any further tests upon arrival.
She explained that the determination of low-risk countries is based on the criteria set by the Ministry of Health and Wellness. This raises the question of whether a country is considered a low risk by the automated Shape Country Risk Assessment Tool and whether it was in the community transfer phase according to the World Health Organization guidelines.
Travellers from countries in the region that do not meet these criteria will be subject to the existing protocols.
A Regional Travel Bubble
Along with PM Mottley, members of Barbados parliament receive the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine. Photo via Twitter @KevzPolitics
“We know that the criteria are not immediately allowed for Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Belize and the Bahamas. If their vaccinated persons have a negative PCR test, they will end up at our airport; they will have to do the second PCR test like all other vaccines do now … If they have not been vaccinated, we know the exercise. “It is five days in quarantine before they undergo the PCR test,” the prime minister said.
“We know that our brothers and sisters in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and St. Lucia had not quite been there yet. I met my brother, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, of St Vincent and the Grenadines spoke, and we hope to hold bilateral talks over the next week to two weeks to see how we can best work together on testing and vaccinations. “that there is a lot of movement between Barbados and the Grenadines every day … and that we really had no problems in the Grenadines, and therefore we would like to add it [to the bubble],” she revealed.
Mottley indicated that similar talks with Bonaire, St. Eustatius, Saba and St. Martin will be held, as the data “is not as clear as we would like”.
Mottley also indicated that the Welcome Stamp program could become a permanent feature in Barbados’ tourism offering.
This report originally appeared on WIC News. Read more here.
