CARIBBEAN ROUNDUP
BAHAMAS
The Bahamas government has
reversed an earlier decision that
allowed vaccinated travelers not to
test for COVID-19 before entering the
country, saying that they will now be
required to obtain a rapid antigen test
or PCR, with a negative result, within
five days of arrival.
A statement from the Office of
the Prime Minister said all children
between the ages of
2 and 11, wishing to
enter The Bahamas
will now be required
to obtain a COVID-19
test (rapid antigen or
PCR) with a negative result, within
five days of arrival in The Bahamas.
All children under the age of two, are
exempted from any testing requirement.
BARBADOS
Central Bank Governor, Cleviston
Haynes is urging Barbadians not to
expect an overnight economic recovery
from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Haynes, noting that uncertainty
continued to cloud for many economies,
said he would have more to say
“on where we are on the road to recovery,
some of the ongoing challenges
we face and the imperatives for sustainable
growth during his quarterly
economic review.”
He was speaking during the recent
opening of the bank’s 41st annual
Review Seminar, held recently, where
his adviser Michelle Doyle and the
Caribbean Development Bank’s Director
of Economics, Ian Durant advised
Barbados and its neighbors to take
steps to become more equally competitive
and resilient.
Haynes said the
pandemic “has
brought into sharp
focus many of the
vulnerabilities and equities that have
for too long been characteristic of the
challenges faced by our economies.”
CARIBBEAN
The Caribbean Tourism Organization
(CTO) recently launched the
Caribbean Community Tourism Network
(CCTN) for tourism development
authorities in the region from which to
draw when developing their community
based tourism (CBT) programs.
According to the CTO, the CCTN
will provide a platform to support the
continued development of CBT in the
Caribbean.
The network will facilitate the
exchanges of best practices among
CTO member countries and interested
tourism development partners and
help identify capacity-building needs
as well as challenges and opportunities
Caribbean L 4 ife, AUGUST 20-26, 2021
Updated daily at www.caribbeanlifenews.com
People displaced from their destroyed houses by an earthquake spend the night outdoors in the hospital garden in Les Cayes, Haiti,
Saturday, Aug. 14, 2021. A powerful magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck southwestern Haiti on Saturday, killing hundreds. Associated
Press/Joseph Odelyn
for CBT development.
The CCTN network provides an avenue
for CTO members to share knowledge,
resources and best practices to
improve community tourism experiences
and economic
impact.
The network is one
of the initiatives of
CTO, which has identified
CTB as a regional
tourism development strategy.
GUYANA
The Guyana government announced
that over GUY $7.8 billion would
be made available to assist persons
severely affected by the recent flood.
President Dr. Mohammed Irfaan Ali
said in a statement that GUY $7.3 billion
will be direct cash injection to
those who suffered losses during the
natural disaster with the remainder
to be utilized by the Ministry of Agriculture.
Ali said over 300 communities and
52,000 households were affected by
the flood.
The government through the
National Assembly has secured GUY$10
billion for flood relief efforts.
He said more than $3 billion will be
given to rice farmers as over 50,000
acres of rice land and 2,000 farmers
were directly affected by the flood.
More than 2,000 farmers are set to
benefit from $600 million in direct
cash transfer.
HAITI
The Haitian government has called
on the United Nations to conduct an
international investigation into last
month’s assassination of President
Jovenel Moise.
The request was made by way of letter
to UN Secretary-General Antonio
Guterres sent from
Haiti’s embassy in the
Dominican Republic.
Specifically, Haiti
called for an “international
commission of enquiry” to be
formed, along with a special court to
prosecute the suspects.
The letter, signed by Minister of Foreign
Affairs, Claude Joseph, said Haiti
considered the attack on Moise in his
residence an international crime due
to the alleged role of foreigners in
planning, financing and carrying it
out.H
aiti also said the UN support
should follow the model of its enquiry
into a 2005 terrorist attack in Lebanon,
which killed 22 people, including
the prime minister.
JAMAICA
Caribbean Airlines Ltd. (CAL) is
moving to retrench 42 of its employees
who are based at
its hub in Jamaica,
as part of its plan to
streamline the airline’s
operations,
according to the Jamaica Observer
newspaper.
Eight of the airline’s 23 Jamaicabased
maintenance workers and about
34 of 84 cabin crew members, including
cabin crew, received notices on
July 30 that they would be retrenched
on July 30, the newspaper reported.
The redundancy is expected to take
effect on Sept. 10 for most persons who
Continued on Page 32
THE NEWS FROM BACK HOME
Earthquake devastates Haiti
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