CARIBBEAN ROUNDUP
Antigua
Antigua-based regional airline LIAT
said it would continue to suspend commercial
passenger services until June
30 due to the continued impact of the
coronavirus pandemic.
LIAT’s Chief Executive
Officer, Julie Reifer
Jones said that most
of the airline’s network
remains closed to
commercial passenger traffic. She said
while some territories have announced
a reopening date, there are still many
protocols to be implemented, such as
testing and mandatory quarantine periods,
which will allow for the safe movement
of passengers.
She said the airline is closely monitoring
the situation across the LIAT
network and will resume flights when it
is safe for passengers to do so.
LIAT, whose main shareholders are
the governments of Antigua and Barbuda,
Barbados, Dominica, Grenada and
St. Vincent and the Grenadines, serves
15 destinations across the Caribbean.
The cash-strapped airline said that
passengers booked during the extended
period of suspension will automatically
have their bookings canceled and will
receive full airline credit for future
travel.
Bahamas
The Bahamas government is set to
reopen its borders on July 1 in which
many new policies, safety measures
and precautions will be introduced to
ensure he continued health and wellbeing
of citizens and visitors.
Minister for Tourism
and Aviation,
Dionisio D’Aguliar
said since March 24,
airports and seaports
throughout The Bahamas have been
closed to all incoming visitors, adding
that given that the Bahamian economy
relies heavily on the tourism sector, the
decision was not made lightly.
He said travel and tourism will be
markedly different from what it was
prior to Covid-19 and that readying
The Bahamas for tourism in the post-
COVID world “is quite complicated with
many nuances and considerations to
plan for.”
The Tourism Readiness and Recovery
Committee was established to develop
a collaborative plan for reopening and
to provide health and safety guidelines
to be followed consistently across the
country.
D’Aguliar said Phase One is expected
to see the opening of the tourism sector
with the return of boaters, yachters, and
private aviation being allowed to enter
the destination.
He also said during that phase commercial
airlines will be allowed to bring
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in Bahamian citizens, legal residents,
home owners qualifying for economic
permanent resident, or the immediate
family members or significant others of
any of these groups.
The tourism and aviation minister
said the phase one opening of the tourism
sector is intended to test the market
and serve as a transition to the phase
two opening on July 1, as well as test
the efficiency of the new protocols that
are entailed in this plan.
Barbados
Barbados said while its international
airport remains closed to commercial
traffic until June 30, this is not a
guaranteed date for when airlines will
resume flying to the island.
Minister for Tourism
and International
Transport, Kerrie
Symmonds said he
cannot give a date on
which airlines will be returning.
“We have taken a position that the
airport remains closed to commercial
traffic until June 30th,” he said.
Symmonds said safety is a priority for
Barbados and any decision taken to reopen
the sector will “not be date-driven,
but rather data driven.”
Noting that regional protocols were
also being examined, he said, officials
were looking at criteria with regard
to the date, managing risk and safety
protocols.
These include possibly a Covid-19
rapid test, which could be conducted on
departure from the source market, on
arrival in Barbados or at both points if
costs allow.
The tourism minister said temperature
testing and prior knowledge of
travel history would be required, so that
as much as possible persons exhibiting
symptoms could be “sieved out.”
Protocols were also needed for the
appropriate levels of quarantine space
for persons eventually test positive.
Guyana
The Guyana Elections Commission
(GECOM) says it will be ready to make a
final declaration of the disputed March
2, general election by June 16, three
days after the ongoing national recount
of the ballots comes to an end.
An addendum to
the national recount
to the May 4 Order was
recently published and
gazette.
It states the commission will give the
Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield
on or before the new recount
deadline to submit his report, containing
the tabulation of the 10 electoral
districts and the observation reports of
each of those districts to the elections
body.
Commissioner Vincent Alexander
said that having received the reports,
GECOM will deliberate, after which
Lowenfield will be advised to make a
final submission.
GECOM had undertaken the recount
of the ballots cast after both the ruling
coalition, A Partnership for National
Unity (APNU) and the main opposition
People’s Progressive Party /Civic (PPP/C)
had claimed victory in the polls. The
recount is being observed by a threemember
high-level team from the Caribbean
Community (CARICOM).
Jamaica
The COVID-19 Task Economic Recover
Task Force is recommending the relaxation
of measures related to border closure
in Jamaica amid concerns that the
island’s economy could contract by as
much as 14 percent for the three-month
period April to June this year.
It said the relaxation
of the measures,
which had been put in
place since March as a
result of the efforts to
curb the spread of the coronavirus could
include “the phased reopening of international
airports, first to Jamaicans who
wish to return, and then to others under
‘new normal’ procedures at all times consistent
with public health guidelines.”
The task force said that all Jamaicans
have an interest in the country’s economic
recovery and public health safety
and that these are not mutually exclusive
objectives but, rather, they are complementary
imperatives.
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