Three Caribbean nations among new additions

 By Durrant Pate

Barbados has added 14 countries to its COVID-19 high-risk category list, meaning any passengers arriving from those nations will be required to quarantine upon arrival at the Grantley Adams International Airport.

Three of the countries among the latest additions to the list are from the Caribbean. They are The Cayman Islands, Antigua and Barbuda and Cuba. The other countries on the list of 14 include Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Iceland, Japan, Martinique, Norway, Sri Lanka and the United Arab Emirates.

The list of 14 was detailed in Barbados’ latest coronavirus health protocols, which went into effect on yesterday. The 14 countries join 36 others that were previously listed by the Bajan health authorities.

Among those previously listed were Jamaica, the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. Just two named countries, Greenland and Egypt, are considered low risk by the Barbados authorities, while there are six countries labelled very low risk. They are Anguilla, China, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, and St. Kitts and Nevis.

In the meantime, questions are being raised about The Cayman Islands’ addition to Barbados’ COVID-19 high-risk list,s considering the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) views Cayman to be low risk for COVID-19.

CDC IDENTIFIED CAYMAN AS ‘VERY LOW RISK’

In August, the CDC listed Cayman as ‘very low risk’ for COVID 19, after observing more than 30 days without a new case at that time.

In the last two weeks, Cayman only reported seven new coronavirus cases, all imported from arriving travellers who were in quarantine when they tested positive. The last localised case was a suspected community transmission on October 9 when a student at Red Bay Primary School returned what was described as a “weakly positive” result for the virus.

Barbados reopened its borders to international air travel in July and since then anyone arriving in the island from a high-risk country, is required to have a negative COVID-19 PCR test three days prior to travel. In addition thety are required to be quarantined at a designated hotel or approved villa until a second test is taken four to five days after the first.

After that test is returned with a negative result, the person or persons tested can leave quarantine but will be monitored for seven days from the time of arrival. Arrivals from very-low-risk countries do not require PCR tests and are not subject to quarantine regulations.