Incoming chairman of Caricom, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda Gastone Browne, says he plans to do away with “discriminatory” travel bans on islands with high COVID-19 numbers.
“We need to establish common or harmonised regional health protocols for travel, clear to the public and communicated widely,” Browne said.
“The discriminatory practice of banning travel from member states with elevated numbers of COVID-19 while accommodating guests from countries of higher risk, should be discouraged.”
He added, “In our tourism-based economies, the resumption of inter-regional travel is one key element in getting key economic activity back to normal.”
Browne made the comment in his first official address after outgoing chairman, Prime Minister of T&T Dr Keith Rowley, handed over the reigns of Caricom to Browne in a virtual meeting of the Caricom island leaders and the Secretariat.
Browne said the increased movement of people among the islands would spell a great boost to the island economies.
He said air transportation is the “oxygen that keeps tourism alive” and proposed the reduction of air travel taxes in order to grow the tourism sector.
Browne noted the more intense hurricane season, as already for the first month of the season there have been five major storms, with the fifth, Elsa, creating havoc among several Caribbean islands.
He said it was time to hold the nations with heavy emissions to account for their part in climate change and called for the establishment of climate reparations.
Browne thanked Rowley for his “tireless efforts” during his time as Caricom chair.
“I applaud, in particular, his persistent efforts in pursuit of life-saving vaccines for the Caribbean, which has borne some fruits,” Browne said.
Rowley, in his final speech as Caricom chair yesterday, acknowledged that his chairmanship took place in the first six months of a “tumultuous year.”
“During that time, our countries have been faced with uncertainties on many fronts, from virus to vaccines to variants,” Rowley said.
‘Through it all, we have rallied and we now stand on a somewhat firmer ground as a result of the co-ordination and collaboration among member states.”
Rowley said that Caricom’s early stance on equitable vaccine access, “anchored our regions actions and continues to resonate globally.”
“Especially among developing countries,” Rowley said.
During his six months as Caricom chair, Rowley called on the more developed countries to stop hoarding the much-needed vaccines and to allow the smaller and less developed islands in the Caribbean access to the suppliers.
“This has put us close to our goal to inoculate as many as possible, to ensure that they are protected from evolving mutations of the virus and to enable us to return safely and soon to bolstering livelihoods,” he said.
Rowley also thanked the Caricom member states who shared their own vaccines with T&T.
“Your gracious acts of good neighbourliness during what has been a challenging time, is deeply and sincerely appreciated” he said.
Caricom Secretary-General Irwin La Roque is set to demit office in the next six weeks and will be replaced by Dr Carla Barnett.
Just last month, Barbados announced a second travel bubble and T&T was not part of it.
Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley announced the new travel bubble, which began at the end of June, for fully vaccinated travellers with negative PCR tests.
Travellers from countries named in the bubble will not be required to do PCR tests or quarantine upon arrival in Barbados.
However, citizens from T&T, Jamaica, Belize, Guyana and the Bahamas were not included in this rejuvenated travel bubble, which means vaccinated citizens from these nations will still be tested at the Grantly Adams Airport and unvaccinated travellers will be required to go into a five-day quarantine.
Last September, under then-chairman, Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines Dr Ralph Gonzalves, Caricom recommended that a travel bubble include those countries according to their respective COVID-19 cases.
Countries were categorised ranging from those with no cases to those which had low, medium, high and very high risk with respect to the rate of positive cases over a 14-day period; the level of risk would be determined by the amount of positive cases per 100,000 of the population within a 14-day period; only those countries with no cases and those in the low-risk category would be allowed to participate in the bubble; and CARPHA will assess relevant data to advise on participation in the bubble.
It was agreed at the time that initially, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines would be in the bubble as they met the criteria.
The other Member States and Associate Members will be allowed to participate when they meet the criteria.
The Heads of Government had also agreed that travellers from countries within the bubble would be allowed to enter those within the bubble without presenting a PCR test before arrival. Travellers would also not face any quarantine restrictions.