US Lowers COVID-19 Travel Warning for Some Caribbean Islands
by Karen Rollins Apr 7, 2022
The US Department of State has lowered its travel warning for some Caribbean countries in response to an ongoing decline in COVID-19 cases.
On 4 April 2022, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a Level 3 “high” warning for Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, the British Virgin Islands, Grenada, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Sint Maarten and the Turks and Caicos Islands.
These Caribbean countries were previously in the CDC’s highest travel risk Level 4 category, which warns against travel for vaccinated and non-vaccinated citizens. A Level 3 warning advises American citizens to be fully vaccinated before travelling to these destinations, while unvaccinated Americans are urged to avoid non-essential travel to these countries.
The CDC also recently removed its warning against travelling on a cruise ship for the first time in two years. The agency now recommends all travellers are fully vaccinated before boarding a cruise.
Several Caribbean islands are still in the Level 4 “very high risk” category, including Aruba, Barbados, Belize, Bonaire, the Cayman Islands, Curacao, Dominica, Haiti, Martinique, and Trinidad and Tobago.
The CDC advises people to avoid all travel to Level 4 countries and adds that “even fully vaccinated travellers may be at risk for getting and spreading COVID-19 variants.”
The Level 4 list currently contains nearly 100 countries, including the United Kingdom, Australia, Italy, and Germany. Level 4 is issued when more than 500 cases per 100,000 residents are registered in the past 28 days.
The list is updated weekly.
