Reportedly, popular Caribbean islands have been placed on the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention’s list of countries that tourists, especially Americans, should avoid travelling to. This move comes after the agency issued an alert against visiting several others.
Reportedly, Antigua, Barbuda and Curaçao have been added to the said alert list this week. As per the CDC, these spots have now been labelled as ‘Level 4: COVID-19 Very High’ destinations. With this announcement, these popular tourist spots join other popular spots that share the highest warning, which include Mexico, Aruba, and Saint Lucia.
Apart from recommending against travel, and issuing updates regarding all international visitors to undergo COVID-19 test before boarding a flight to the United States, the agency also constantly updates its country-by-country list by assessing the risk level. Reportedly, to check a country’s status, the agency uses COVID-19 data, including those from the World Health Organization, and keeps a check at new case trajectories and incidence rates.
However, as of now, not all Caribbean island destinations have been tagged with the CDC’s highest warning. While Bermuda and the Bahamas had been classified as ‘Level 3: COVID-19 High,’ Grenada got the tag of ‘Level 2: COVID-19 Moderate,’ and Anguilla is tagged ‘Level 1: COVID-19 Low.’
Although most of the Caribbean islands have been welcoming tourists, and setting up on-site COVID-19 testing to facilitate people in their travel, there are some islands that have already closed their borders amid the emergence of new COVID variants. These destinations include St. Barts, Martinique, St. Martin, and Guadeloupe islands.