Belize becomes first country in Caribbean to welcome vaccinated travellers with no restrictions
Those who’ve had both jabs don’t need to be tested
Kass
Belize has become the first Caribbean nation to welcome vaccinated travellers without a negative Covid test.
Visitors who can prove that they have had both jabs of an approved vaccine at least two weeks before entering the country will no longer have to get tested beforehand.
They must also download the Belize Health App and add all required information within 72 hours before arriving in Belize.
The nation on the eastern coast of Central America has been open to tourists since October 2020 and received the Safe Travels Stamp, a global safety and hygiene accreditation developed by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC).
However, this is the first time visitors have been able to ditch the testing requirement.
“The decision to ease the restriction on travellers who have received the Covid vaccine has been facilitated by the reduction in daily new cases across the country,” the Belize Tourism Board said in a statement, reports the Caribbean Journal.
“Belize has been very successful in its efforts to control the transmission of Covid-19 over the past few weeks; presently, there are less than 100 active cases countrywide, and the numbers have been consistently decreasing.”
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Non-vaccinated travellers can still enter Belize, but must present a negative PCR test taken within 96 hours of travel or a rapid antigen test taken within 48 hours of travel.
Those who fail to present a negative test will have to pay $50 in cash to take a test at the airport, and will have to quarantine for 14 days if the result is positive.
Belize is the latest in an ever-growing line of countries opening their doors to vaccinated travellers.
The Seychelles, Georgia, Estonia and Madeira are among the countries already letting visitors who’ve been inoculated forgo quarantine restrictions.
Cyprus and Greece have both announced that British tourists with vaccination certification may enter, quarantine-free, from 1 May and 14 May respectively.
The deputy tourism minister of Cyprus, Savvas Perdios, told the island’s news agency: “We have informed the British government that as of 1 May we shall facilitate the arrival in Cyprus of those British nationals who have been inoculated with vaccines approved by the European Medicines Agency, so that they can come here without needing a negative test and without needing to quarantine.”
