NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Bahamas Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) President Robert Sands said yesterday that a Level 2 travel designation by the US Centre for Disease Control (CDC) is “not the direction we wish to go” as a destination.
Sands said: “Recognizing that the continued prevalence of highly transmissible Omicron subvariants globally (in particular within key source markets) may be helping (amongst other factors) to fuel the uptick in cases globally; while the level 2 (Moderate) CDC travel health notice designation is not the direction we wish to go as a destination; it is not inconceivable that we would experience our own uptick in cases locally.”
The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has moved The Bahamas from a level one to a level two on its travel health notice.
A level one indicates that a country has a low level of COVID-19 and a level two indicates a moderate level. The move comes less than a month after The Bahamas was lowered to a level one. The number of new COVID-19 cases in The Bahamas has increased notably in the past week, with 166 cases recorded between May 2 and May 8.
Sands said: “In keeping with international and local Health Authorities’ observations and recommendations regarding the efficacy of vaccinations; we continue to recommend mindfulness of the need to take reasonable precautions against infection and we continue to urge persons to get vaccinated and boosted – to be considerate of the health and wellbeing of family, community members, fellow employees and those persons who may be more vulnerable to the severe illness due to infection.”
