CDC put Jamaica in ‘Level 2’ from ‘Level 3’ category, eases travel requirements

Kingston, Jamaica: The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – (CDC) eases the travel requirements for Jamaica, putting it to the ‘Level 2’ category from ‘Level 3’.

With this, Jamaica is now a low-risk destination for travellers. The information was provided by the Jamaica Tourist Board. On achieving the milestone, Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett stated it as a positive sign for islands’ tourism sector and economy.

He cited, “This is a very positive sign for our country as we continue to make progress on our path to recovery,” adding that, “This reduced designation is a testament to the work of our administration and the general public of Jamaica themselves to mitigate the impact of this contagious COVID-19 pandemic”.

Highlighting recovery of the tourism sector, Barlett underscored, Jamaica is witnessing strong visitor arrivals and is publicising record-setting numbers this winter season.

This would eventually give a boost to the sector and its economy while assisting the Caribbean island to revive from the severe impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak.

“We expect this new lower designation by the CDC to aid us to grow those digits even further, as it gives visitors even more reassurance that our island is among the safest destinations in the world for their next trip,” the tourism minister furthermore added.

Apart from this, the tourism ministry officials earlier outlined the study that predicts Jamaica will reach pre-pandemic arrivals statistics by the third quarter of 2023. The island opened its borders the previous year, and since then, has recorded the arrival of more than a million tourists.

Daily COVID-19 cases have also seen a decline. While as per the vaccination data, 708,521 individuals are the ones who are vaccinated, atleast by taking one jab of the COVID-19 vaccine.

On the other hand, 557,360 individuals are now fully immunised in Jamaica, which counts for 18.8 percent of the total population.