CDC Warns Against Travel To Over 20 Caribbean Countries

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Weds. Nov. 25, 2020: The Centers For Disease Control, (CDC), is urging Americans to avoid travel to 21 Caribbean countries.

The CDC raised the almost two dozen countries to Level 4, saying the countries have a “Very High Level of COVID-19,” even though the region lags way behind the US on coronavirus, and most have been able to contain the virus.

The CDC says travel to these countries “may increase your chance of getting and spreading COVID-19.”

They are: Antigua & Barbuda, Aruba, Bonaire, Belize, Cuba, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Saba, Saint Martin, Sint Eustacius, Sint Maarten, the Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago, the Dominican Republic, USVI, Suriname and the Turks & Caicos islands.

The updated advisory was issued on Nov. 21st.

Jamaica Hotel Tourism Association President, Clifton Reader, speaking on a radio program in Jamaica, said he expects the advisory to put a damper on the tourism sector’s performance there.

“We have the facts to back up that the winter season, not only from that declaration, but we did a survey within the JHTA a couple days ago and it shows that, where we were projecting 35 per cent for the winter season, it’s now down to 30 per cent,” he said.  “So, with such a declaration telling people not to travel to Jamaica…we definitely believe that it’s going to affect the travelers coming into Jamaica, occupants for the winter season.”

Jamaica has recorded 10,422 positive cases of COVID-19 as well as 243 deaths to date.

The warning comes as U.S. airlines are adding flights, and in some cases COVID-19 testing programs, for travel to the Caribbean, a region central to carriers’ strategies to tap into pockets of holiday demand before a vaccine makes its way around the world.