By NAN Staff Writer
News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Thurs. Jan. 14, 2021: The US, which is battling a major COVID-19 crisis, this week warned nationals to reconsider travel to three Caribbean islands.
On January 12th, the US slapped a “reconsider travel” warning on the Turks & Caicos Islands, Belize and Grenada. The islands are now on a “level three” list because of rising COVId-19 cases in the countries.
As of yesterday, Grenada had 132 cases while Belize has over 11,000 COVID-19 cases and the Turks & Caicos over 1,011 cases.
The State Department update follows a level 3 Travel Health Notice issued by the Centers for Disease Control.
The US’ update comes as the country now has over 23 million cases, adding over 188,000 new cases alone on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2021. And as the government, United States that nearly all air travelers will need to present a negative coronavirus test to enter the U.S.
Under the rules taking effect Jan. 26th, nearly all travelers including U.S. citizens must show a negative test within three days of departure or documentation of recovery from COVID-19, under an order signed by U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Robert Redfield.
All travelers aged 2 and older must comply except passengers who are only transiting through the United States. The CDC will also consider waivers of testing requirements for airlines flying to countries with little or no testing capacity, including some places in the Caribbean.
The order dramatically broadens a requirement imposed on Dec. 28 for travelers arriving from the UK as a more transmissible variant of the virus circulated there.
Canada imposed similar rules for nearly all international arrivals starting Jan. 7th, as have many other countries.
