Bahamas, Haiti and Sint Marteen added to CDC's "Do Not Travel" list

Bahamas, Haiti and Sint Marteen have been added into a "very high risk" country by the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) of the United States. It stated that people must avoid travelling to these countries because of a higher number of coronavirus cases.

A total of six destinations were moved into the Level for the list, including Bahamas, Haiti, Kosovo, Lebanon, Morocco, Sint Maarten. The countries were previously ranked at "Level 3: COVID-19 High".

Countries or destinations that are under the Level 4 category or Covid-19 Very High and have had over 500 cases per every 100,000 residents in the last 28 days as per the criteria listed by CDC. While the Level 3 category titled "COVID-19 high" applies to places with over 100 to 500 cases per 100,000 in the last 28 days

Prime Minister of Bahamas Hubert Minnis imposed a curfew on Saturday, August 21, starting from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. in mainland Exuma, Abaco and the Abaco Cays, and North, Central and South Andros as the number of coronavirus cases grow rapidly. The country recorded 17,386 cases of coronavirus, while 338 people lost their lives to the deadly virus.

The Bahamas recently received 128,700 doses of the Pfizer vaccine from the United States of America. The recent restrictions by CDC are most likely to cause huge damages to the tourism sector. Being a Caribbean country that has mostly beauty to offer, the tourism industry is the backbone of the economy.

On the other hand, Haiti is currently facing the wreckages of the 7.2-magnitude quake. Prime Minister Ariel Henry advised the citizens to follow the guidelines and be conscious of the coronavirus related risks.

Haiti is the last country in the region to get vaccines and is mostly relying on WHO or other nations for donations.

The poorest country in the Caribbean is suffering from food shortages, very weak medical infrastructure and rising gang violence. People rarely travelled to Haiti even before the pandemic due to the crime.