CARIBBEAN ROUNDUP
Barbados
The Barbados government has lashed
out at the United States over its travel
ban advisory in which Washington
warned Americans against travel to
the island in the wake of the Covid-10
pandemic.
In a statement issued last week, the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the “The
No Travel” advisory suggests Covid-19 is
very prevalent in Barbados.
“The Ministry of
Foreign Affairs and
Foreign Trade has the
further honor to state
that Barbados condemns
any travel advisory
which, absent of any publicly verifiable
date, advocates for the prohibition
of travel to Barbados on the suggestion
that such is inherently dangerous for
international travelers,” the statement
said.
The ministry also expressed concern
that the advisory does not give
US travelers the opportunity to make
an informed decision on travel to the
island.
“At the same time, Barbados notes
that some countries have retained a
Level-3 advisory from the Department
of State, while maintaining a Level-4
CDC advisory as at April 2020,” it said.
The ministry also said Barbados had
not identified additional coronavirus
variants of concern that would significantly
diminish vaccine efficacy and
had implemented a triple-test and quarantine
requirement for unvaccinated
international travelers, well in access of
regional entry protocols, to minimize
the possibility of local transmission
through imported cases,” the foreign
minister said.
Barbados now joins 129 other
nations, about 80 percent of the world
to receive the new label from the US
State Department.
Guyana
United States-based ExxonMobil has
said it is reducing oil production offshore
Guyana by 90,000 barrels a day.
It noted that it has
taken a decision to
mitigate the formation
of hydrates in subsea
systems, maintain gas
injection and fuel gas to the power generators
and minimize flare blaming.
In a recent statement, the company
— which is the operator of the Liza
Phase One Well — said that production
will now be 30,000 barrels daily, down
from the 120,000 barrels a day.
The company noted that a team from
SBM Offshore, Man Energy Solutions
and ExxonMobil is on site to assess
repairs, with support from engineering
experts in Europe and the United
States.
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Several tourists enjoy Rockley beach, in the resort town of Rockley, in the parish Church Christ, Barbados. Hotels across the Caribbean
stand empty, beachfronts void of tourists as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Associated Press/Chris Brandis
ExxonMobil said the relevant government
agencies have been notified and
“we are continuing to talk with officials
to determine the next best steps.”
The announcement by the oil company
comes almost three months after
a troublesome flash gas compressor
malfunctioned and had to be re-installed.
Grenada
Grenada says it is in the first stage of
implementing a strategy that will result
in the island becoming
a major supplier
of fresh produce in the
southern Caribbean as
a result of the inability
of St. Vincent and the
Grenadines to meet its obligations as
a result of the erupting La Soufriere
volcano.
Minister of Agriculture, Peter David
said the volcano, which has been erupting
explosively since April 9, will create
a food shortage in the region and
Grenada is placing itself in a position to
reduce the impact of the fallout.
He told reporters it was going to have
a long-term serious impact on St. Vincent
and “I dare say food availability in
the southern Caribbean is an important
issue for us, and St. Vincent has been in
a sense a major producing/supplier of
many agricultural products including
livestock.”
‘We have already looked at several
government estates to determine what
we going to produce, but we have
to first determine what the market
demands because we have to produce
what the market wants,” said David.
He reminded reporters that St. Vincent
and the Grenadines is well known
for its mass production of roots crops
such as tania, sweet potatoes and dasheen.
Jamaica
The Jamaica economy is showing
signs of recovery from the resultant
fallout as a result pf the Covid-19 pandemic,
despite contracting by 8.3 per
cent for the October to December 2020
quarter, relative to the corresponding
period the previous rear, the Statistical
Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) reported.
In a review of the
latest key indicators,
STATIN said the
December 2020 quarter
contracting was
primarily due to an 11.1 percent decline
in the services industry.
STATIN’s Director General, Carol
Coy, said however, that the goods-producing
industry grew by 0.2 percent,
adding that when compared with the
July to September 2020 quarter, the
economy grew by 0.9 percent during
the review period.
She told the virtual presentation of
the quarterly report the December 2020
out-turn represented “a continuation
of the third quarter’s growth relative
to the second (April to June) quarter
2020”.
STATIN indicated that despite the
economy contacting by 10.7 percent in
the September 2020 quarter, this was
an 8.3 percentage point improvement
on the out-turn for the proceeding
period.
St. Kitts
St. Kitts and Nevis
Prime Minister, Dr.
Timothy Harris is calling
for greater public
education programs to
combat the growing trend of vaccine
hesitancy in the Caribbean, particularly
as it relates to the Covid-19 vaccines.
He said there are strong pockets of
Covid-19 vaccines hesitancy and skepticism
and these must be addressed
through targeted messaging and sensitization.
Harris in his address to observe the
recent CARICOM Vaccination Week in
the Americas noted the Caribbean has
done well in the implementation of
public health measures such as social
distancing, mask wearing and frequent
had washing but insisted the “mass vaccination
to achieve herd community, as
has been demonstrated with polio, is
the trump card that is sadly missing.”
“The Caribbean region will not be
safe until 70 to 90 percent of the popu-
Continued on Page 42
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Barbados angry over US travel ban
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