Jamaica Reopens Borders to UK Travel Today

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Jamaica Reopens Borders to UK Travel Today

Many countries worldwide amid the pandemic, continued to initiate travel bans as a piece of their COVID-19 administration measures. However, Jamaica will return its connection to travelers from the United Kingdom (UK) today, subsequent to prohibiting non-stop departures from that country a little more than four months prior.

Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett said on Thursday that the COVID restriction ban was initiated as a component of the actions under Jamaica’s Disaster Risk Management Act in December 2020, in light of the spread of a COVID-19 strain in the UK, would come to an end on Friday, April 30, and it won’t be expanded.

Bartlett said “On Saturday, May 1, Jamaica will reopen its borders to international visitors from the United Kingdom. This will enable the critical gateways of Heathrow and Gatwick airports, to have transit for passengers coming through and who are fully compliant with health and safety protocols required for international travel,”

“Jamaica’s position at this time is critical in relation to the opening up of the summer tourist season and in fact, the importance of enabling the diaspora, particularly the strong British clientele that have always come to the island.

“The lifting of the ban is also against the background of the improved vaccination programme in the UK and the fact that pretty close to 50 percent of UK residents have received their second dose of vaccinations,” Bartlett said.

“The opening of the borders is important in the context of not just Jamaica’s tourism but Caribbean tourism, as so many of these countries benefit from transiting through Jamaica for British and European nationals,” Bartlett explained.

“It is important also against the background of the recent call by the Caribbean Tourism Organization urging a review of the categorization of Caribbean countries by the UK; given the fact that we have the lowest death rates and highest recovery rates and exemplary COVID-19 management,” added Bartlett.

Since resuming its boundaries last June, Jamaica has invited around 1.5 million guests under the island’s strong health and safety protocols.

 

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