By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolletribunemedia.net

ACTING Prime Minister Chester Cooper said yesterday that he supports government’s decision to soon remove all COVID testing protocols for entry into The Bahamas.

Mr Cooper spoke to reporters after Health and Wellness Minister Dr Michael Darville told a local daily that the Davis administration had recently approved health officials’ recommendations to remove the COVID- 19 testing requirements for all ports of entry and was working to gazette the policy change.

Currently, only unvaccinated travellers entering the country are required to produce a negative COVID test no older than three days prior to arrival.

The testing requirement, along with the remaining mask wearing mandates, are among the few restrictive measures still being enforced in the country.

“Tourism is a competitive business,” Mr Cooper said before heading to yesterday’s Cabinet meeting. “The world has moved on as it relates to COVID. The protocols around the world have been relaxed. Many of our competitors and large companies around the world have completely eliminated protocols.

“I expect that we’re going to get there. I support the further relaxation of these protocols. There’s been a lot of calls for the elimination of masks and suffice to say the tourism industry is ready to see the back of the protocols, they’re ready to move on and certainly that is the sentiment that we are expressing to our colleagues from the Ministry of Health.”

In the meantime, Mr Cooper said his ministry will continue to work in helping the tourism industry fully rebound from the pandemic.

While highlighting several of his ministry’s accomplishments over the last year since assuming office, Mr Cooper pointed to increased tourism arrivals to The Bahamas and the more than $3b in investments his ministry has attracted thus far for the country.

“We see the tourism numbers rebound, almost to the 2019 levels. It continues to grow. By next year, we expect that we will exceed pre-pandemic levels so that’s the first point,” he said.

He added: “And we must ensure that the engine continues to run. So we’ve primed the pump. We’re doing missions around the world. (We went) to Florida two weeks ago. Next week, we plan to go to New York. Next month, we’re going to Canada. The month after that we’re going to the UK, the Middle East. We will continue to push to ensure that the goose that lays the golden eggs continues to lay those eggs for the Bahamian people, creating jobs and business opportunities for our people. That’s what we are seeking to do.

“On the investment front, we have attracted more than $3 billion of new investments to our country. A lot of it is coming through the tourism sector, but all of the other sectors are participating actively in this engagement as well. We have attracted a lot of investments to our Family Islands, inclusive in this $3 billion – Abaco, Eleuthera and Exuma being right there with Nassau and Grand Bahama in terms of the level of investments they’re attracting, so I’m very pleased with what we’re seeing.”

He also praised the government’s decision to create a fund geared specifically towards community and social based initiatives.

“One other item we’ve been able to form is a fund for community and social initiatives under the remit of the Gaming Board, where one percent of revenue will go into this fund for social causes, including education, tourism development, sports, culture so this is a significant achievement, and we hope that we would be able to make significant funding donations for various projects across the country as a result of this new fund.”