St Lucian govt announces new COVID-19 travel protocols for int’l travellers

St Lucia: The Government has announced the COVID-19 related travel protocols for vaccinated travellers. St Lucian government has updated the national travel protocols to create a “Seamless Saint Lucia Experience” for travellers.

These newly established travel protocols for international travellers will be implemented from March 5, 2022.

As per the statement by the government and health ministry, “Fully vaccinated travellers and in-transits passengers aged five and over must have a negative rapid COVID-19 antigen test or a Rapid COVID-19 PCR test taken the day prior to entering Saint Lucia.”

“Travellers may also provide a negative RT-PCR COVID-19 test taken up to five days prior to arrival,” the statement further notified.

The same protocol is for unvaccinated travellers. The government stated that all unvaccinated travellers must present a negative RT-PCR COVID-19 test, take up to five days prior to entering St Lucia.

The government asked the travellers to upload the test results at the official site of St Lucia – www.stlucia.org/covid19. The statement issued read, “All travellers must register their information and upload test results online prior to travel on ww.stlucia.org/covid19. On completion, they will receive an automatic ‘ready to go’ email.”

The Chief Executive Officer of the St Lucia Tourism Authority, Lorine Charles-St Jules, “As one of the very first destinations to implement a responsible tourism reopening strategy, St Lucia has continuously evaluated COVID-19 travel protocols. These major changes are good news for visitors and returning nationals as it means a simplified process, greater access to testing and a significant reduction in cost.”

“We have been listening to our travel community in the US, UK, Canada, Caribbean and around the world. Travellers were seeking a seamless experience along with confidence in the safety and eased protocols reflect our commitment to welcoming travellers back to St Lucia,” the tourism minister further stated.

The newly announced protocols further stated that rapid antigen tests must be administered by a healthcare provider, and the government has denied the acceptance of the self-administrated tests and saliva tests.

The government further stated that as of January 2022, 90 percent of tourism arrivals had been fully vaccinated.