Trinidad and Tobago put travel restrictions on 8 South African countries as new variant emerges

As the world is witnessing the emergence of the new COVID-19 variant ‘Omicron’, the government of Trinidad and Tobago put a travel restriction on a few nations, which came in effect from November 26, 2021. 

The Ministry of Health informed, following are the nations to which the government imposed travel restrictions – 

• Botswana
• Eswatini (formerly Swaziland)
• Lesotho
• Malawi
• Mozambique
• Namibia
• South Africa
• Zimbabwe

Following are the travel restrictions: 

For non-nationals:

The Ministry further informed that the citizens who are not permanent residents of Trinidad and Tobago would not be permitted to travel the island. 

The non-nationals who have visited the above-mentioned countries within the time period of 14 days prior to their travel to Trinidad and Tobago would also not be allowed to visit the island. 

For nationals: 

The citizens and the permanent residents of Trinidad and Tobago who have visited the above nations will be permitted to enter the island but they must be required a mandate state-supervised quarantine of not less than 14 days. 

The Ministry further cited in the press release (for nationals):

1. The individuals travelling to the island would be needed to bear all associated costs and should make the necessary arrangements by themselves before their visit. This will be applicable for both vaccinated and unvaccinated nationals who are travelling from the countries listed above. 
2. All the other existing entry requirements, as indicated in the TTtravel Pass website – https://ttravelpass.gov.tt/, must be adhered to inclusive of a negative nasopharyngeal (nasal swab) RT-PCR test result taken not more than 72 hours prior to their travel in Trinidad and Tobago. 

World Health Organisation – WHO named the new COVID-19 variant – B.1.1.529 as ‘Omicron’. 

Omicron has been detected in the South African region. The organisation has put it into the category of ‘most-troubling category of Covid-19′. 

Several nations rushed to put travel restrictions on the nations of South Africa ahead to prevent bringing the variant into their countries.