Bahamas Bans US Tourists as Coronavirus Cases Spike
Bahamas Prime Minister Hubert Minnis announced this weekend that American tourists, among other, will not be allowed to visit to the popular travel destination. The ban comes as U.S. coronavirus numbers continue to surge. The pandemic is also growing exponeitally in the Bamahas, although the total number of cases is only 153. The ban will go into effect as of Wednesday the 22nd of July 2020 at midnight.
The pandemic has been contained in the Bahamas, but since the country reopened its borders on July 1, it has seen 49 new cases. That’s about a third of the total cases recorded in the Caribbean country. Thirty-one of those new cases were recorded on the island of Grand Bahama.
The prime minister announced a series of measures to address the current increase in confirmed COVID-19 cases. He said that “international commercial flights and commercial vessels carrying passengers will not be permitted to enter our borders, except for commercial flights from Canada, the United Kingdom, and the European Union.”
“Bahamasair will cease outgoing flights to the United States of America, effective immediately,” Minnis said. To accommodate visitors scheduled to leave after Wednesday, 22 July 2020, outgoing commercial flights will be permitted. All returning Bahamians, residents and visitors by air or sea from overseas will require a negative RT-PCR COVID-19 test result from an accredited lab. You can read the full announcement here.
Florida, which is Bahamas’ largest tourist markets, is only about 50 miles away. It is also a major U.S. epicenter of the virus in recent weeks, reporting 12,478 new cases on Sunday.
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