Barbados allows home quarantine for passengers from low-risk countries

Passengers from COVID-19 epicentres will face quarantine at a government facility or a hotel at their own expense, coordinated by the government. In contrast, persons from low-risk countries can quarantine at home.

The Ministry of Health and Wellness announced this after university students returned home from regional campuses.

The Ministry implemented this new policy to allow them and others from similarly low-risk countries, as it relates to the coronavirus disease 2019, to home quarantine.

The policy went into effect Saturday afternoon (June 13) with the arrival of 15 passengers on Caribbean Airlines, comprising mostly students from the Mona, Jamaica and St Augustine, Trinidad campuses of the University of the West Indies (UWI).

Immediately on arrival, the passengers were swabbed, interviewed and informed of the requirements for home quarantine, which include confinement to their residences and daily monitoring for symptoms by public health officers for 14 days. The Health Ministry decided to introduce a Swabbing Centre at the Grantley Adams International Airport to reduce wait time and better accommodate passengers as the airport must still carry out its Customs protocols and complete the newly introduced sanitization of bags as well before departing the facility.

Home quarantine is also allowed on a case-by-case basis for passengers with medical conditions or family situations which cannot be accommodated at the state-run facilities.