UPDATED: U.S. State Department advises against travel to The Bahamas

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

On Thursday, the Bahamas became the only country in the English-speaking Caribbean to receive a level four travel advisory from the United States indicating that US residents should not travel here because of the “health and safety measures and COVID-19 related conditions”.

Most other countries in the region received a level three advisory which advises US residents to reconsider travelling to those places.

The Bahamas is joined by a list of regional countries that include Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Guyana and Cuba.

The country recorded ten confirmed cases of COVID-19 Thursday, including seven on New Providence, two on Bimini and one on Abaco. There was one additional hospitalised case for a total of 19. This pushed the nation’s total to 761.

The United States meanwhile has nearly six million confirmed COVID-19 cases and more than 150,000 deaths.

The US advisory came as both the United Kingdom and Switzerland added The Bahamas to lists of countries from where people must quarantine for 14-days upon arrival.

The latest US travel advisory came as the United States, in conjunction with the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, lifted the global level 4 health advisory that had been in place since March 19.

The US State Department announced that it has returned to its previous system of country-specific levels of travel advice as health and safety conditions improve in some countries while deteriorating in others.

“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a Level 3 Travel Health Notice for the Bahamas due to COVID-19,” the US advisory says. “Travelers to The Bahamas may experience travel prohibitions, stay at home orders, business closures, and other emergency conditions within The Bahamas due to COVID-19.

The advisory also maintained previous warnings about crime in The Bahamas - much of which is grossly out of date.

On Thursday, US Embassy Public Affairs Officer Daniel Durazo explained the rationale behind the advisory update.

“With conditions improving in some countries while potentially deteriorating in others, the department has returned to our previous system of country-specific levels of travel advice (with levels from 1-4 depending on country-specific conditions), in order to give travellers detailed and actionable information they need to make informed travel decisions,” he said in a statement to The Tribune. “We continue to recommend US citizens exercise caution when travelling abroad due to the unpredictable nature of the pandemic.

“Under this return to country-specific levels of travel advice, the travel advisory for The Bahamas is now Level 4 (do not travel), due to health and safety measures and COVID-related conditions; US citizens are advised to exercise increased caution in The Bahamas due to crime (the same as before the pandemic).”