BAMP ‘now digesting’ new entry policy for fully vaccinated travellers

In a surprise move that appeared to confer benefits on those who are inoculated against the coronavirus and timed two months before the start of the Winter travel season, Government changed its entry policy on Thursday. Fully vaccinated travellers who can also show proof of a negative PCR test result on arrival here will be allowed to go straight to their homes or hotels without the need to be tested again or be quarantined.

The Ministry of Health and Wellness announced on Thursday that the change to the travel protocols will go into effect on Sunday.

“Effective Sunday, October 24, fully vaccinated travellers to Barbados with a valid negative pre-flight COVID-19 PCR test result will no longer be required to take a COVID-19 test or quarantine on arrival in the island,” Minister of Health Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Bostic disclosed.

“Travellers meeting these requirements will therefore be allowed to leave the port-of-entry with no restrictions.”

But in the statement issued by the Barbados Government Information Service (BGIS), the health minister also cautioned that the Chief Medical Officer still reserves the power to request COVID-19 testing of any traveller and to quarantine them if required.

In immediate reaction, the hotel and tourism industry appeared broadly to welcome the change but the medical fraternity’s chief spokesperson said it now has to “digest” the news, especially considering that the timing caught them by surprise.

Chairman of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) Geoffrey Roach said the easing of the COVID-19 travel restrictions has the potential to boost bookings against the backdrop of ongoing cancellations.

“Potentially it should result in some improvement because a lot of persons were concerned about a number of factors, that being one; the level of testing that was required when we know what is happening in many other markets that testing was not required,” Roach told Barbados TODAY on Thursday.

“The change to the travel protocols where there is no testing on arrival in Barbados is certainly good news for us…because what it effectively does, it reduces the burden of tests that persons have to undergo to come to Barbados.”

The BHTA chairman added: “So I anticipate that that would be some very welcomed news in the source market. The hope is that once you can communicate that to the market, the response as we are anticipating would be that persons would respond to say they will go ahead and book their travels to Barbados.We totally understand the position that [the ministry of] health had taken in trying to keep Barbados safe.”

“But those persons who are concerned about those things would probably have opted to visit other destinations where the testing requirements were not as strict.”

The medical community which has been insisting on stricter COVID-19 protocols to try to stem the unprecedented spread of the virus and consequential deaths said on Thursday that even though officials knew the change in travel protocols was imminent, the effective date as announced by Government caught doctors by surprise.

President of the Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners (BAMP) Dr Lynda Williams told Barbados TODAY: “We knew it was coming; didn’t expect it today. [We were] not consulted…don’t know anything more. We are now about to discuss it. I heard that that was on the table; but that it was going to be announced today as a done deal, I did not know. I thought it was coming tomorrow. We are now digesting it.”

While welcoming the removal of the requirement for testing and quarantine for fully vaccinated in-bound travellers, the hotel and tourism executive nevertheless foresees some hoteliers losing business as a result of the same change in protocols.

Roach said: “The flipside of that is that one of the things that we would have seen with the requirements for testing on arrival in Barbados was that persons had to be quarantined; and a lot of those persons would have had to quarantine at hotel properties, including locals. So we will lose that business, but there has to be give-and-take. We are happy that the relaxation would potentially allow more visitors to go on and book travels to Barbados. But it is also good for Barbadians who are fully vaccinated and had a PCR test, they no longer have to go through that quarantine period on arrival back into the country.”

Roach then turned his attention to the prospects of reemployment for those workers who had been laid off in the sector during the height of the pandemic.

“With the increases that we see in bookings despite the fact that there are some challenges, a number of the properties have been bringing staff back out. The rate at which you can bring staff back out to the pre-COVID levels, will depend on how we are going to get our occupancy levels back up to, or close to pre-COVID levels,” he told Barbados TODAY.

The hotel industry spokesman also weighed in on the Government’s recent decision to institute “safe zones” in various places of work where only fully vaccinated employees or those receiving frequent testing, would be allowed in the same space.

“We are looking forward to seeing what the guidelines are going to be like for the safe zones and see how far along the road that would take us,” Roach declared in the context of a request from the BHTA for government to make vaccines mandatory in that sector by December 1 in time for the official start of the Winter tourist season.

While the Government continues to say no to mandatory vaccines in Barbados, Roach suggested that the next step for the industry would be determined by the guidelines for the “safe zones” which he has not seen as yet.

emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb