In an effort to get people travelling again, Palace Resorts are offering hotel guests a free 14-night stay should they test positive for Covid-19.

With 10 hotels across some of Mexico and Jamaica’s most picturesque destinations, Palace Resorts is known for its luxury all-inclusive resorts.

Since the pandemic, each of the hotels have introduced strict new safety procedures at properties in Cancun, Cozumel, Isla Mujeres, Playa del Carmen, Los Cabos and Ocho Rios. Similar measures have also been introduced at the brand’s adults-only spa properties, Le Blanc Spa Resort in Cancun and Los Cabos.

These measures now include free on-site Covid-19 testing for any guests that want to take a test before checking out.

Any travellers who opt to take the test and receive a positive result will be able to quarantine for free at their hotel for up to two weeks.

The hotel chain, which has been operating for more than three decades, is hoping that the new measures reassure passengers they won’t have to pay more money if they need to undergo mandatory quarantine.

Any travellers that continue to test positive after the initial 14-day isolation period will be given the option to extend their stay at the hotel at a discounted rate of $199 per room, per night.

Are Jamaica and Mexico open for travel?

Jamaica has reopened to all foreign travellers. Tourists flying to the country from the US, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Mexico and Panama need a negative PCR test before flying to the Caribbean nation; all other travellers do not.

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Anyone planning to fly to Jamaica must complete a pre-departure Travel Authorisation form and purchase mandatory travel insurance before their trip.

Mexico is also open for travel, with anyone allowed to travel by air for business or leisure purposes. Commercial flights are operating to and from Mexico, although Dubai’s Emirates has yet to resume flights from the UAE to Mexico City.

Travellers flying to Mexico do not need to provide negative PCR test results or quarantine on arrival, but some resorts have additional safety measures in place for arriving passengers.

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A winter storm dropping snow and ice also sent temperatures plunging across the southern US plains states, prompting a power emergency in Texas a day after conditions canceled flights and affected traffic across large swaths of the US.

Texas sees one of its coldest winters in decades as temperatures drop

“We urge Texans to put safety first,” the council tweeted as it urged residents to reduce electricity use. ERCOT manages the flow of electric power in the state.

“Every grid operator and every electric company is fighting to restore power right now,” ERCOT president Bill Magness said in a statement.

The rotating outages were expected to last through Monday morning. More than 1.6 million customers were in the dark as of 5am local time, according to poweroutage.us, a utility tracking site.

Around 5,000 Oklahoma Gas & Electric customers were without power overnight and Entergy Arkansas logged about 3,000 outages. Both states have much smaller populations than Texas.

Officials in Houston had warned people to prepare for outages and hazardous roads – conditions similar to the wake of a category 5 hurricane.

“There have been numerous reports of accidents from icing recently,” National Weather Service (NWS) lead forecaster Bob Oravec said on Monday. “I think there’s going to be a big threat today as the system pushes north-eastward.”

Accumulating ice between a tenth and a quarter of an inch was possible across eastern Louisiana, Mississippi, central Tennessee, Kentucky and over into the West Virginia and Ohio border region, Oravec said.

Up to 12in of snow was expected across parts of the southern plains into Monday, said Marc Chenard, a meteorologist with the NWS Weather Prediction Center.

The region had been gearing up for the winter weather for the better part of the weekend. Texas governor Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration for all of the state’s 254 counties. Abbott, Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt and Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson activated national guard units to assist state agencies with tasks including rescuing stranded drivers.

President Joe Biden declared an emergency in Texas in a statement on Sunday night. The declaration is intended to add federal aid to state and local response efforts.

More than 760 flights were canceled at Dallas-Fort Worth international airport and at Dallas Love Field most of nearly 200 flights for Southwest Airlines, the airport’s main carrier, were canceled on Sunday. American Airlines said about 345 of its flights were canceled at DFW airport, its hub, by early Sunday afternoon. The airline said the storm was affecting flights across the region, with operations reduced and canceled at airports across Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas.

The NWS said the forecast through early Tuesday called for 8in to 12in of snow in central Oklahoma, and 4in to 8in from eastern Texas to the Ohio Valley.

In Memphis, Tennessee, snow started falling on Sunday afternoon. While main roads were still passable, lines formed during the day at grocery stores as people rushed to stock up. In Mississippi, Bill Parker, an NWS meteorologist in Jackson, said up to three-quarters of an inch of ice could accumulate, bringing the possibility of power outages or falling tree limbs.

Parts of Kentucky and West Virginia still recovering from an ice storm last week were expected to get up to a quarter-inch of ice or up to 8in of snow by Tuesday.

Meanwhile, in the Pacific north-west, tens of thousands were without power after a winter storm blanketed the region with ice and snow and made travel treacherous.

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