Grenada, Jamaica at risk of being added to UK red travel list—report
Two Caribbean countries are at risk of being included in the United Kingdom’s red list of countries.
In a report by Sky News, the COVID-19 situation in Jamaica and Grenada—both popular destinations for tourists in the Caribbean—have exacerbated. There has been a significant increase of positive cases flying in from Jamaica, while Grenada saw an uptick in the number of its infections.
Sky News, which consulted data expert Tim White for the report, also revealed that Grenada could “become the first country to go directly from green to red” because of an “astonishing” spread of COVID-19 on the small Carribean island.
According to White, about 1,000 people per 100,000 are testing positive for COVID-19 each week in Grenada, which is “well into the danger zone”.
The surge of COVID-19 cases in Grenada is immensely high that Grenadian Prime Minister Keith Mitchell has already flagged an immediate need of field hospital in Grenada in a dialogue held on Monday at the 16th Emergency Meeting of the Conference of CARICOM Heads of Governments.
Meanwhile, Jamaica has recorded more than 9,000 cases of COVID-19 infections in the last 14 days, according to collected reports from official sources.
Jamaica has been in the amber list in the previous review, but within hours the Foreign Office issued guidance saying it “advises against all but essential travel to the whole of Jamaica based on the current assessment of COVID-19 risks.”
White told Sky News that the transport secretary “would effectively be admitting a mistake three weeks ago” if he put Jamaica on the red list, and might not even do so for that reason.
The UK categorizes countries and territories as red, amber or green in its travel list, with different rules for each of the three lists. These lists are reviewed and updated every three weeks.
White also disclosed that St. Lucia is also at risk because the infections were high during the lst review, but now it’s declining and the case numbers are low overall.