CDC downgrades Jamaica’s COVID travel risk

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States has moved Jamaica down from Level 4 to Level 3 in its COVID-19 travel advisory to citizens.

The update was made yesterday.

A Level 4 ranking is deemed as a country with a very high level of COVID-19 and persons should avoid travel to the destination.

A Level 3 country is classified as having a high level of COVID-19 and travellers are to make sure that they are fully vaccinated before travel.

Unvaccinated travellers should avoid nonessential travel to these destinations.

Reacting to the development, tourism minister Edmund Bartlett said this is welcomed news.

“This is a very positive development. I want to commend our health authorities and the people of Jamaica for working to bring down the rates of COVID-19 infections and hospitalisations, which augurs well for our risk assessment rankings. Beyond that, the Resilient Corridor remains a very safe space for visitors and workers alike with comparatively high vaccination rates and extremely low infection rates,” he said in a statement today.

Bartlett noted that despite CDC risk assessments, Americans by and large continue to travel to destinations they want to visit.  

“The previous Level 4 ranking caused jitters in some circles and was certainly not good optics. However, with this improved ranking, it will be most helpful in our current and very aggressive efforts to boost tourist arrivals from all our markets,” said

senior adviser and strategist in the Ministry of Tourism, Delano Seiveright.

Bartlett is currently in the United Kingdom with a high-level team from the Ministry of Tourism and the Jamaica Tourist Board participating in the World Travel Market, one of the largest international tourism trade shows in the world.

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