by Curlan Campbell
- Grenada not among countries on first Green list due to low vaccination uptake
- As of 14 May, 14,804 first doses and 6,614 second doses of AstraZeneca vaccine administered
- British Airways’ arrival schedule moved from 26 May to 17 June
UK travellers are being encouraged to resume foreign holidays later this month without having to quarantine on their return from destinations that are listed Green on the UK’s traffic light system, after the travel ban is lifted on 17 May.
Grenada is not among the 12 countries listed on this first green list, as our destination has been designated as amber for travellers to the UK. It’s a major disappointment for Grenada’s tourism industry. This is due to the low vaccination uptake by the population, which as of 14 May stands at 14,804 first doses and 6,614 second doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine administered, from a batch of 50,000 available doses with just under 2 months before the expiry date. Other factors considered are infection rates and whether there are any variants of concern in the country.
“The fact that we have gone from green to amber is a very vexing situation,” Minister for Tourism Dr Clarice Modeste Curwen said during the Grenada Tourism Authority (GTA) Tourism Stakeholders Conversation held at the National Stadium — referring to Grenada’s inclusion on the UK’s Travel Corridor list in July 2020 until the UK temporarily suspended all leisure travel from the UK in mid-January 2021.
Also disappointed with the news was President of the Grenada Hotel and Tourism Association (GHTA) Leo Garbutt who stated that Grenada’s amber listing has already affected flights expected to arrive from the UK. “The scheduled time for BA was originally was the 26th of May, but because of the position that the UK government took last Friday with us being in amber, what that has meant is that British Airways has pushed their arrival schedule back and it’s now about the 17th of June and they are talking about 2 flights per week,” he said.
The UK Government website states: “Passengers who have visited or transited through an amber country will be required to fill in the passenger locator form, provide a valid notification of a negative test result prior to travel, quarantine at home for 10 days, and take a test on day 2 and day 8 after arrival. Passengers will also have the option to opt into Test to Release at day 5.”
Israel and Gibraltar are among the 12 destinations placed high on the green list due to their very high vaccination rates. Australia, Iceland, Brunei, New Zealand, Singapore and Portugal are also on the green list.
Minister Modeste Curwen said as tourism officials remain optimistic about the reopening of the tourism sector, negotiations are ongoing between the Ministry of Tourism and cruise lines to establish science-driven protocols for in-port cruise operations based on advice from the Centres for Disease Control (CDC). Dr George Mitchell has been designated as Grenada’s health personnel who will be responsible for communicating directing with cruise line operators.
Dr Modeste Curwen said so far it was agreed upon that Barbados will be the homeport for cruise ship passengers before embarking on their voyage. Additional plans are being finalised by the local health authorities as to how these cruise ship passengers are accommodated upon reaching Grenada.
“We have to finalise if it’s absolutely necessary to test people when they come in; whether they can travel in a bubble or whether we will accept the testing from the cruise ships. These are some of the things that are being finalised so we may need to put a station there for testing,” she said.
It is unclear as to whether Grenada’s amber listing will affect cruise ship arrivals to the island.
Editor’s note: This post has been edited for clarity.
stop being ignorant and get vaccinated! You are destroying your own economy because you are paranoid….
If you look who’ they are giving the vaccine to should let you k ow what’s is going on. Do you think the Caucasian world would administer to themselves an experimental drug. This is what they have done and still do to us in other parts of the world. All of you who decide not to take this particular vaccine are taking a bigger risk. All I hear is black people are not taking the vaccine. You could be playing right into their hands, they could be banking on us not taking the vaccine. In two months time when the Americans who every one loves starts coming in, and your vaccines expire, if your rates of Covid starts to rise as a result, what happens then?Like I said, if they are protecting themselves, they most know there’s something else to come. We don’t have to fall at the first hurdle my people.
I was disappointed to have my flight cancelled, better safe than sorry. I didn’t believe at first, after losing people I know left right and centre, (and not elderly) this year has made me re-evaluate my original stance.
God Bless Grenada and everyone in her during these strange times.
Just my take in it from afar.
AZ like all the other vaccines is passed FOR EMEGENCY USE, it has not been passed for normal use. It is an experimental drug, it cannot technically be called a vaccine, as it does not and did not ever have the intention of normal vaccines., which are intended to STOP the pathogens from being taken in by the body, to stop them replicating in the body, and to stop them being transmitted to others. The primary goal of these concoctions was to reduce the severity of the illness to take the pressure off the hospitals. They are experimental, and will remain so until the end of the trials. Anyone taking the vaccine is an uninformed volounteer in stage 4 trials. The Vaccines may work to greater or lesser extents. There will always be contraindications for some people. Even the safest current vaccines have people who have bad side effects and even death. This is normal. Were the vaccine simply to give one a slight headache, a muscle cramp, or pain at the local site, I wouldn’t think twice. But, the numbers of significant side effects are grossly under reported, and the twisting of the data regarding who has had symptoms and illness is grossly over reported. Even the CDC states those that simply died of Covid was about 5 or 6% of the recorded deaths. The other 94 to 96% were people with significant co-morbidities, meaning most deaths were of people who were only a hop skip and a jump away from dying anyway, whether they knew it or not. The normal average age of death is 81, the average age of death due to Covid is 82. The regular flue rate is vertually zero, so Covid has just taken over that slot. Many many people are committing suicide due to isolation and loss of jobs and businesses, people are psychologically damaged. All for the sake of a nasty cold. There are 40 odd peer revued papers out there that tell us lockdowns do not work at best, and do more harm than good in most cases. Masks at the very best only give perhaps a 3% protection rate. The 6ft rule is a joke, as an air born pathogen it should be closer to 20 feet, but life would come to a complete stop if they said 20 ft. In Northern regions it is strongly seasonal. The Countries introduced masks after the curve dipped, and they got through a Summer with almost no deaths or real cases. Come the Autumn in it came again.. Seasonal… Come the spring BEFORE hardly anyone had been fully vaccinated the cases were dropping like a stone. Come Sept Oct it will be back but lower, as natural immunity will have already made it’s stand. The vaccine MAY help, but as the vaccine may actually blinker the inate immunity there is a chance it could make some people more at risk. There are several combinations of medicines and vitamins that are as effective at treating the illness as the vaccine is supposed to be at reducing it. But with the increasing numbers of breakthough cases I suspect the vaccine is going to be almost a waste of time. If you think the pharmacueticals are your friend try to remember the Tobbaco companies, the oil companies, the Asbstos Companies. You are Billions of pounds of profit, with a booster every 6 months or a year with no liability for damaging you, they can’t go wrong.
Expat, well said. Of course non of the Cult of Covid will accept anything but another gulp of that delicious koolaid.
Grenada have virtually zero CV19 yet despite the mountain of recent evidence vthey are still stuck into a March 2019 time warp.
Fear makes it easy to manipulate people.
Ja, stop telling people to get the toxin, the thing is an experiment because on the U.K. gov site it tell you that it is a trial /and testing don’t end until February 2023,so what if 30 million had it in the U.K. that don’t prove nothing. Do you know how many have died from it and adverse affects it’s had. No,go on the U.K. gov website it will tell you, because the media not going to report it. so stop telling people to go and take that toxin, unless you have true evidence that it not going to do them no harm. After the trials done, let people make up their mind,U.K. gov have said it won’t stop you from catching the virus, so what’s the point? Don’t make no sense.
The UK government website does NOT say this. Check out this page from 28th April: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/one-dose-of-covid-19-vaccine-can-cut-household-transmission-by-up-to-half:
“Studies have already demonstrated that being vaccinated against coronavirus (COVID-19) significantly reduces your risk of being infected. [This] new research shows that those who do become infected 3 weeks after receiving one dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or AstraZeneca vaccine were between 38% and 49% less likely to pass the virus on to their household contacts than those who were unvaccinated. Protection was seen from around 14 days after vaccination, with similar levels of protection regardless of age of cases or contacts.”
You, and people like you, are the reason that vaccination take-up is so low, resulting in causing ongoing damage to the Caribbean economy which relies so heavily on tourism. If you want to do something useful for your community, then stop perpetuating this garbage.
Listen Dee wake up god gave you brains use it I live in the UK and I work all over the world ok UK is the 1st country in the world to bring out the vaccine over 30 million people in the UK has taken it Grenada 15 k well if you lot not want the vaccine good luck to you and for your information AZ is not on trial its the only vaccine has been well tested and approved by the w.h.o. so get your facts right wake up use your brain cells what god gave you you’re the kind of person who has not taken the vaccine people who do not take the vaccine does that to them I’ll tell you this the AZ is the best vaccine in the world and it’s been approved so wake up I’ve taken the vaccine my second vaccine I had last week and I ain’t going to die why in fact if people don’t want to take the vaccine in Grenada people will come in and buy the country me personally grenadians need to wake up up.and take the vaccine and save lives and for your information AZ is the best out there wake up woman AZ has been approved by W.H.O ok wake up
And another thing Dee ok AZ is not on trial so get your facts right AZ has been approved and passed this all trials so please get your facts right maybe you’re the kind of person who has not taken the vaccine and tells people not to take it well good on you maybe you don’t love your family and friends maybe you want to die get your facts right every vaccine every medication has side effects even the food you eat has side effects on some on certain people so get your facts right first I am educated maybe you’re not but I tell you this vaccine has save lives already if you do not want to take it it that’s up to you but you’re the kind of person and tell people not to take it get your facts right first and use the brain cells that god gave you this vaccine is to save lives and maybe yours as well if you do not want to live that’s your problem but I’ll tell you this now this vaccine is not on trial it’s pass all it’s tests and been approved and passed by W.H.O ok so get your facts right first ok.
Listen Dee Isle of Grenada which I have visited a number of times I love the country I love the people but grenadians need to wake up up.and get the vaccine it will save lives Grenada is one of the most beautiful countries in the world there is nothing wrong with the vaccines so please take the vaccine save lives and enjoy oi life
Here we go…”due to low vaccination uptake” lol. Please, another form of underlined coercion. In order to get to Grenada from the uk we have to go through Barbados, that’s the main reason for Grenada being on the amber list, so Barbados needs to sort their infection rate out first and then I guarantee you you’ll see Grenada on the green list. Plus BA has always announced that they will resume flying back to Grenada in June and not in May because I’ve spoken to staff at BA including staff at MBIA, so that’s old news.
Who is we? Keep your racism soley for yourself, dont include 99% of good Grenadians.
How can the UK with one of Worse Health Care Response to CV19, and one of the highest CV19 death rates in the World at 1900/Milllion …..have the audacity block Travel to Grenada where they have had just one….just one single death!
Talk about Absurd. Hahahaha.
Politicians have behaved like Tyrants, damaged the economy and scared people from traveling outside their homes. Endless hoops and hurdles just to travel, who hs going to put up with all the new tyrannical bull?.
Even if Grenada was on an approved list, the Tourism Industry not just in Grenada but Globally, have been damaged for a long long long time.
So sad, we proud Grenadians who live abroad have and are still supporting our families and friends in the Home Land on a regular basis.
Please remember we love our country and its people.
And to the Union lawyers etc and people who say to others stop telling people not to take the vaccine it’s a life saver to you all and to your beautiful country so please the people of Grenada get the vaccine it will save you and your family and friends and colleagues and your beautiful country. And stop saying the mask of the beast SIM cards tracking etc grow up and get the jab ok act your age not your shoe size save your country save yourselves get a jab b4 it’s to late
You know why as Grenada people has not taken up the vaccine so it’s your thought the people of Grenada so get the vaccine and stop mucking around ok in UK we have over 30 million people who has been vaccinated so people of Grenada get the jab b4 it’s to late