No plans to widen travel ban – Tufton

The Jamaican Government is not immediately considering expanding its travel ban beyond the United Kingdom amid the emergence of a new, more contagious strain of the coronavirus.

That confirmation was made by Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton, who dismissed calls by the Opposition to mount more barriers to international travel.

His remarks were in response to Dr Morais Guy, opposition spokesperson on health, who urged the Holness administration to “immediately impose travel restrictions on the nationals of those countries where the mutated virus has already been detected.”

Guy said that while the Opposition commended Monday’s ban on passenger travel between the UK and Jamaica, which took effect on Monday, enough was not being done to safeguard the interests of the local population.

Tufton, in an interview with The Gleaner, appeared to be peeved by Guy’s suggestion, saying initially that he would not respond to the Opposition’s request.

The health minister relented, however, insisting that the Government’s policies would be driven by science.

“I take advice from the clinical team, and that’s where we are right now,” he said.

“At this point in time, nobody has raised it with me,” Tufton said of the possibility of a widened ban. “As far as I know, we have been dealing with the same issues all along. I don’t know of any additional or new information.”

Guy, in a media statement Tuesday afternoon, said there was evidence that the variant, which is reportedly 70 per cent more contagious than the original strain, had emerged in the Netherlands, South Africa, Denmark, and Australia.

Jamaica receives limited numbers of travellers from those countries each year.

Guy has also requested that the Government disclose whether data collected and shared with the Pan American Health Organization and other international partners have revealed any evolving strain of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that has infected 78 million people globally and killed 1.7 million.

Jamaica has recorded 12,354 cases and 288 deaths as at December 21.

The travel ban on all flights from the United Kingdom will last for two weeks, ending January 4, 2021. Passengers who were scheduled to arrive on the island from the UK were permitted, until midnight December 22, to land, but be subjected to a minimum 48-hour state quarantine and PCR testing.

A British Airways flight was already en route to Jamaica on Monday when the ban took effect. A viral video has shown at least one passenger hurling expletives at hapless flight attendants having learnt that they would not immediately head to their homes or hotels.