BUENOS AIRES/ASUNCION/SANTIAGO, Sept 9 (Reuters) – Latin America’s mothers are falling behind in the pandemic economic rebound, returning to the labor force more slowly than men in a trend experts say could set back female workforce participation by a decade.
An analysis by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), which included countries in South America’s “Southern Cone,” as well as Mexico, showed women overall taking the biggest employment hit when COVID-19 struck last year.
Behind the trend: women more often work in sectors most impacted by the pandemic, including tourism, commerce and education. Entrenched gender imbalances also has meant women have faced the lion’s share of unpaid domestic work and care-giving, sharpened by lengthy school closures in the region.
“We are seeing that in a disproportionate way those (domestic) demands are being attended by women,” Luis Felipe Lopez-Calva, UNDP Director for Latin America and the Caribbean told Reuters.
While women overall have been impacted, there are some key differences between groups. Mothers in two-parent households are the least likely to return to work outside the home, while single mothers – though hit hard initially – have seen a sharper rebound in employment and labor participation.
Reuters Graphics
“It was not easy to find work in the pandemic,” said Barbara Temperley, a Buenos Aires business administration graduate with two children aged 9 and 12, adding her guess was that employers were worried about the impact of care tasks on female hires.
“Things did not return to how we were before the pandemic.”
In nearby Paraguay, Rosa Maidana, a 45-year-old mother of three children, cited long school closures, which meant many kids are unlikely to have in-person classes until early next year. She was driving a school bus before the virus spread.
“Everything changed with the pandemic. I had my vehicle and I kept doing it until there were no more classes. Then I stayed home with my kids, who have virtual classes every day, and now we depend on my husband’s work,” she said.
The UNDP report showed the single mothers had been affected in terms of unemployment and labor force participation, but are now actually bouncing back further in the recovery – partly out of necessity to get back a living wage.
“There was no option not to work, something had to be done,” said Rosa Navarro, a 52-year-old Chilean with seven grown children, who had to reinvent her events business with 20-member staff to selling breakfasts and lunches when tough restrictions came into effect.
“I am single, I do not have a husband to help me. My children give me a hand, but we were very affected,” she added.
According to the UNDP, in Latin America, where only 40% of women participate in the labor market, 39% of households are headed by a woman and 26% are single-parent households where the head is a woman. The study was done based on household surveys from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Mexico, Paraguay and Uruguay.
Reporting by Lucila Sigal; Additional reporting by Daniela Desantis in Asuncion and Benjamín Mejías in Santiago; Editing by Nicolas Misculin, Adam Jourdan and Aurora Ellis
Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro struck a defiant note on the country’s independence day on Tuesday.
He told tens of thousands of his supporters who had gathered in the city of São Paulo that only God would remove him from power.
He also launched fresh attacks on Congress and the Supreme Court, institutions he says are persecuting him and his political allies.
The court recently approved several investigations into Mr Bolsonaro.
What’s behind his remarks?
Mr Bolsonaro has always been fond of giving impassioned speeches in which he not only lambasts his critics and calls them names but also portrays himself as the victim of concerted attacks by his rivals.
Supporters of the president have embraced his disdain for the Supreme Court and its justices
But mounting pressure from several investigations and calls for his impeachment have led to the president’s rhetoric becoming ever more belligerent.
The rallies he convened for independence day were seen as an attempt to demonstrate he can still draw huge crowds of supporters after recent polls had him trailing his left-wing rival Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva by nine percentage points.
Opponents of the president also turned out on independence day
While elections are not due to be held until October 2022, Mr Bolsonaro’s approval ratings have also dropped to an all-time low.
A poll by the Atlas Institute suggested that 61% of Brazilians described his government’s performance as bad or very bad, up from 23% when he first took office in January 2019.
While an attempt to impeach the president over his handling of the Covid crisis was blocked by the speaker of the lower house of Congress, Mr Bolsonaro is portraying himself as under attack from Congress and the Supreme Court.
Last week, he told evangelical leaders – who are among his staunchest backers – that “I have three alternatives for my future: being arrested, killed or victory”.
And he again took up that theme in his speech on independence day, saying that “only God will oust me”.
Casting doubts on election
He also used his speech to again cast doubts on Brazil’s electronic voting system, telling his supporters he would not take part in an election “farce” in 2022.
Bolsonaro supporters back his calls for a change to the electronic voting system
Mr Bolsonaro has long tried to change the exclusively electronic system, which he alleges is open to fraud, to one which provides paper receipts for each vote cast.
The electoral tribunal has not only dismissed his attacks as “disinformation” but has also opened an investigation into the president’s allegations that the system is fraudulent.
His critics say he is using the same tactics as former US President Donald Trump to allege widespread fraud in case he loses next year’s presidential election.
Sea of green and yellow
An estimated 140,000 people, many of them waving the Brazilian flag, answered Mr Bolsonaro’s call to rally in São Paulo, where they filled Paulista Avenue.
A huge crowd filled Paulista Avenue in São Paulo
The president had earlier attended another rally in the capital, Brasilia, where tens of thousands gathered to express their support for the president.
There was a large police presence in Brasilia where threats made by some of the president’s supporters to storm the Supreme Court had led to fears that Brazil could see similar scenes to those that played out on 6 January in Washington DC, when supporters of President Trump surged past barricades into the US Capitol.
But while some Bolsonaro supporters broke though a police cordon in the early hours of Tuesday, they did not manage to surround the Supreme Court building.
Mr Bolsonaro did again lash out at the Supreme Court justices, telling the crowd that “I’m very happy to see that all of Brazil got together for a new independence against the communist dictatorship of the judicial authorities”.
He has frequently clashed with Supreme Court justices during his tenure and tried to have one of them impeached after the judge launched two investigations against him.
Many of his supporters called for the closure of the Supreme Court and Congress, accusing them of abusing their powers and persecuting Mr Bolsonaro.
Many left-wing and trade union groups which had originally called on their supporters to hold counter-on Tuesday, moved their events to Sunday to avoid clashes with Mr Bolsonaro’s supporters.
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President Biden is facing rising COVID-19 challenges as he prepares to lay out new steps in the pandemic fight on Thursday.
The president will use a speech on Thursday to try to demonstrate he has a handle on the situation.
But after the pandemic receded in the United States earlier in the summer, the highly contagious delta variant has fueled a new spike, rising to roughly 150,000 cases and over 1,000 deaths per day.
This spike is different from those of last year, in that vaccines are now widely available, meaning the risk is now overwhelmingly for the unvaccinated.
While experts say there certainly is more the federal government can do, they also say part of the challenge is that a segment of the American population is simply refusing to get the vaccine, allowing the virus to continue to spread.
Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said it is important to “identify what the problem is here, and that is the anti-vaccine movement.”
“This isn’t like what it was last year,” he added. “This is willful.”
What’s coming in the speech? The full details aren’t yet clear, but it’s a six-part plan.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that the six steps Biden will announce Thursday will include “requiring more vaccinations,” as well as boosting testing and “making it safer for kids to go to school.”
Psaki said that while the administration has made progress after fighting the pandemic for months, she acknowledged that “he’s going to lay out these six steps tomorrow because we have more work to do.
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday called for rich countries to refrain from giving people booster doses of coronavirus vaccines until at least 2022.
WHO Director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus last month said wealthy nations should put a pause on boosters until the end of September. But that plea was largely ignored.
“We have been calling for vaccine equity from the beginning, not after the richest countries have been taken care of,” Tedros said during a news conference. “I will not stay silent when companies and countries that control the global supply of vaccines think the world’s poor should be satisfied with leftovers.”
What’s the goal: Tedros said the WHO’s targets are to support every country vaccinating at least 10 percent of its population by the end of this month, at least 40 percent by the end of this year and 70 percent of the world’s population by the middle of next year.
Almost 90 percent of high-income countries vaccinated at least 10 percent of their populations, and more than 70 percent have vaccinated at least 40 percent of their populations.
But “not a single low-income country has reached either target,” Tedros said.
Why it matters: Much of the developing world still doesn’t have access to the vaccines, despite global commitments and promises. Wealthy countries, including the U.S., are pushing ahead with boosters anyways. The Biden administration is debating internally with health officials about the details; experts have raised serious concerns about the ethics and whether the evidence even shows that the extra shots are necessary. But based on White House comments, the end goal is for boosters to start rolling out Sept. 20.
In related news, the program that’s aimed at getting vaccines to poor countries doesn’t have enough supply.
The COVAX program estimates that its global COVID-19 vaccine deliveries will fall almost 30 percent below its goal of sending out 2 billion doses by the end of the year.
The World Health Organization (WHO), the GAVI Vaccine Alliance, UNICEF and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness predicted that by the end of 2021, about 1.4 billion doses would be available for the program designed to make shots more accessible to lower-income nations.
This year’s fourth quarter is expected to see an uptick in vaccine deliveries, but it will not be enough to fulfill the original target for the year, the international organizations forecast. The current “most likely scenario” is that another 1.1 billion doses will be provided between September and the end of the year.
Under the most likely forecast, COVAX would reach 2 billion doses available for delivery between January and February.
Why: The international organizations attributed the predicted shortfall to several factors, including restrictions on exports from the Serum Institute of India — a key supplier for vaccines — and problems increasing manufacturing at vaccine facilities, particularly those that supply Johnson & Johnson and the AstraZeneca vaccines.
Lags in regulatory approval for other vaccines created by U.S. company Novavax and Chinese firm Clover have also contributed to the lack of expected doses.
Figures based on reported number of US airstrikes highlight the human cost of the 20-year ‘war on terror’
People gathered around the incinerated husk of a vehicle targeted by a US drone strike, which killed 10 people including children, in Kabul, Afghanistan, 30 August 2021. Photograph: Marcus Yam/REX/Shutterstock
On the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attack, a new study claims US drone and airstrikes have killed at least 22,000 civilians – and perhaps as many as 48,000 – since the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001. This is according to new analysis published by the civilian harm monitoring group Airwars.
The analysis, based on the US military’s own assertion that it has conducted almost 100,000 airstrikes since 2001, represents an attempt to estimate the number of civilian deaths across the multiple conflicts that have comprised aspects of the “war on terror”.
Afghan villagers sit near the bodies of children who were reported to have been killed during a NATO airstrike in Kunar province on April 7, 2013. (Photo: Reuters)
The death toll from US airstrikes – which the group admits is imprecise – compares with an estimated 387,000 civilians who are believed to have been killed by all parties during the war on terror, according to work done by Brown University’s Costs of War Programme.
Since taking office Biden has reduced US reliance on airstrikes amid a formal review of US drone policy, and has withdrawn from many of the foreign interventions that marked the time in office of his three predecessors George W Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump, since the 2001 attacks on the US by al-Qaida.
Encompassing attacks on Islamic State in Syria, the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as strikes against militant and terror groups in Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan and Libya, the US has said it had conducted at least 91,340 strikes in 20 years – including 9,000 against the Islamic State, the Airwars report said.
Based on that total, Airwars has calculated that “US actions likely killed at least 22,679 civilians, with that number potentially as high as 48,308”.
According to the group’s research, the deadliest year in the past two decades for civilian victims of US airstrikes was 2003 when a minimum of 5,529 civilians were reported to have been killed, almost all during the invasion of Iraq that year.
The next deadliest year was 2017 when at least 4,931 civilians were likely killed, the vast majority in coalition bombing of Iraq and Syria.
However, going by the maximum estimates, 2017 emerges as the worst year for civilians, with up to 19,623 killed, almost all in the bombing campaign against IS.
The issue of civilian casualties of western airstrikes and other military activities during the war on terror has always been highly contested territory, with the US and its allies insisting that strenuous efforts have been made to minimise civilian death and injury.
And despite the wide-ranging umbrella of operations that have encompassed the war on terror, the US – according to a statement issued by the Pentagon – has never sought to calculate a total of civilian deaths ascribed to actions under its aegis.
An email reply to Airwars from the Pentagon’s Central Command (Centcom) said that it did not have information available on the total number of civilian deaths from airstrikes.
“The information you request is not immediately on hand in our office as it spans between multiple operations/campaigns within a span of between 18 and 20 years,” Centcom said.
NIA CHARLESTOWN NEVIS (September 08, 2021) — The Hon. Spencer Brand, Minister of Physical Planning on Nevis, gave contractors on the island an opportunity to discuss the Building Contractors Registration and Regulation Bill, 2021 which had its first reading in the Nevis Island Assembly on July 13, 2021.
Addressing a number of local contractors at a consultation–hosted by the Department of Physical Planning and the Nevis Island Administration’s (NIA) Legal Department at the St. Paul’s Anglican Church Hall on September 07, 2021–the minister underscored the importance of the bill which is designed to ultimately provide a better quality of service to consumers.
“I have…no intention of depriving anyone from earning a living but I feel that there must be a systematic approach for anyone who wants to ply their trade in this very important industry. I believe that it would offer protection for you as a contractor, as an electrician, as a plumber but it would also offer for you the opportunity to expand, to grow and to find yourselves, as it were, taking on larger and much more meaningful projects.
“At the end of this consultation, I hope that we can go to parliament with this legislation and have unanimous support for it, for the benefit and the development of our island because from where I sit, that is what I am all about, to see this develop, to see Nevis progress, to see Nevis advance, and I have a feeling that you who are in this construction sector have and will have a critical role to play,” he said.
Mr. Brand who has a background in architecture, said he had always seen the need for improving the sector, and the time had come for the contractors to contribute to the Bill.
“I believe that the construction sector on the island of Nevis must be taken to a different level, and when I became in that position to give some direction to the sector, I felt that the time was right to bring this piece of legislation for the island of Nevis… I want to say to the contractors, I want you basically to take ownership of this legislation…
“I felt that if we were to pass a piece of legislation that will have far-reaching and wide-ranging impact on such an important sector that there must be consultation. I believe that we are at that stage where we will have that consultation…and we want to have that honest conversation because at the end of the day it is for your benefit,” he said.
The Physical Planning Minister also explained that with new technologies and new methods of construction, and a sector which continues to be dynamic and innovative he does not want to see the local contractors left behind. He urged them to be open and honest during the session.
He expressed hope that in the end there would be a piece of legislation that can work seamlessly with the Department of Physical Planning, the banking sector and the ministry for the benefit of contractors and for the development of Nevis.
Among those present at the consultation were Mr. Denzil Stanley, Principal Assistant Secretary in the Ministry of Communication and Works, who chaired the consultation; Mr. De-Jono Liburd, Legal Counsel at the Legal Department; Mrs. Rhonda Nisbett-Brown, Senior Legal Counsel at the Legal Department; Mrs. Hélène Anne Lewis, Legal Advisor in the Nevis Island Administration; Mr. Raoul Pemberton, Director of the Department of Physical Planning; and Mr. Jevon Williams, Director of the Public Works Department.
Anthony Gajor, an aspiring Nevisian and the Head of Marketing and Corporate Finance at Hamilton Reserve Bank (https://hrbank.com/)was approved by Malaysian regulators to serve as a board member of Fintech Bank Ltd (www.fibank.com), a leading Malaysia-licensed commercial bank based in Labuan and Kuala Lumpur in Southeast Asia.
According to the World Bank, Malaysia is a British Commonwealth nation and the world’s 36th largest economy with a population of 32 million and USD400 billion in annual GDP (Gross Domestic Product). Malaysia is widely recognized and broadly respected as a highly sophisticated, forward-looking financial hub that embraces diversity, entrepreneurship, efficiency, and innovation.
Anthony Gajor, A Rising Star in Nevis
Anthony Gajor is the first and only Nevisian in recent St. Kitts and Nevis history who has been approved of such a prominent international position. At age 27, many in the Federation’s business circles view the well-spoken Mr. Gajor as a rising star in business and perhaps someday in politics.
Mr. Gajor grew up in Nevis and graduated from the University of New Haven in Connecticut, USA. Armed with a bachelor’s degree in Business Management with a minor in accounting, he joined Hamilton Reserve Bank as a private banking executive. A year later, through hard work and exceptional job performance, Mr. Gajor was promoted to lead the bank’s marketing and corporate finance departments in Nevis, rising to the position of Managing Director overseeing the relevant departments. He was also named a member of Hamilton Reserve Bank’s Government Policy Group, which advises the bank’s worldwide leadership on local cultures and business practices in Nevis. Giving back to the Nevis community, Mr. Gajor serves on the board of Nevis Historical & Conservation Society (NHCS), a non-profit, non-governmental organization that strives to protect the cultural heritage of Nevis, including operating the world-renowned Alexander Hamilton Museum in Charlestown.
Excels in the International Markets
“The banking regulators’ approval of Anthony Gajor as a board member of the fully licensed Fintech Bank is a general endorsement of Mr. Gajor’s character and capabilities,” said Prabhakar Kaza, CEO of Hamilton Reserve Bank. “With his experience, deep roots, and upbringing in Nevis, Mr. Gajor meets the high regulatory review standards in Malaysia for ethics and professional qualifications to function effectively as a ‘fit and proper’ person to lead a bank.”
“Fintech Bank anticipates onboarding at least one million new customers in the next twelve months through collaboration with Hamilton Reserve Bank,” said Gavin Lim, a fellow Fintech Bank board member who is based in Malaysia. “Mr. Gajor will serve as a natural ‘bridge of knowledge’ to advise both of our institutions.”
“We are proud of Anthony Gajor’s success as one of the most promising banking executives in St. Kitts and Nevis. It is a great accomplishment to be approved by a well-informed, well-respected, large financial jurisdiction such as Malaysia,” said Sir Tony Baldry, a member of the UK’s Privy Council and Chairman of Hamilton Reserve Bank. “We believe Anthony Gajor is among the most talented executives that Nevis has to offer. As a matter of bank policy, Hamilton Reserve Bank welcomes all ambitious Kittitians and Nevisians to join the bank’s executive bench.”
Currently More than 30 Job Openings at Hamilton Reserve Bank
As the largest global bank in the entire region, Hamilton Reserve Bank employs more than 100 people worldwide, and the bank is rapidly expanding. To support its growth, the bank is on a hiring spree for its sprawling 13-acre Nevis headquarters in Jessups.
“Our goal is to hire more than 30 new staff to join our marketing and operations team here in Nevis,” said Howard Anthony Lewis, Hamilton Reserve Bank’s country leader and Senior Risk Officer. “Hamilton Reserve Bank serves customers around the globe. We would love to see more Kittitians and Nevisians joining the bank regardless of a person’s age or educational background. The bank offers many benefits such as competitive salaries, free health insurance, and daily free lunch prepared by the bank’s gourmet chef.”
With his latest success, Anthony Gajor’s world will likely get a lot bigger than the borders of St. Kitts and Nevis.
“Anthony Gajor will travel around the world to meet with Hamilton Reserve Bank’s global clientele,” said Antonio Kenyatta, Hamilton Reserve Bank’s Chief Financial Officer, who isa former investment banking executive at Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan on Wall Street. “Hamilton Reserve Bank has many job openings here in Nevis. It is our policy to help advance the careers of Kittitian and Nevisians. We would love to develop more executives from the Federation.”
Anthony Gajor’s success is felt closely at home. The Gajor family name is well-known among many Nevisians. Mr. Gajor is a Nevis Sixth Form College alum and a Charlestown Secondary High School graduate. His mother Sherry Gajor is a successful cosmetologist and hairstylist in Nevis. His beloved grandfather Joseph Gajor is a serial entrepreneur who has founded several companies.
“I am so happy for Anthony’s achievement. From a very young age, he has had a determined mind to succeed,” Ms. Gajor said. “Anthony wants to pursue a career in Nevis rather than the U.S. where he has declined several job offers because he felt greater opportunities exist in Nevis. I am sure his late grandmother Sylvia Parris would have been very proud of him. We are grateful he is growing with Hamilton Reserve Bank to see a big world out there. Nevis can do a lot more for our young people. They all just need to be given a chance to try their wings.”
With his beloved mother by his side, Anthony Gajor is excited about taking on a new world of opportunities.
“No matter where I travel to in the world, and no matter what I will do with my life, whether in business or perhaps running for public office someday, Nevis is where my heart is. Nevis is home, and I am always a proud Nevisian.”
About Anthony Gajor
Mr. Anthony Gajor was raised in Nevis. He has extensive experience in marketing, banking, business development, and corporate finance. He started his career as a Benefits Consultant and Licensed Health Insurance Agent at Aflac, one of the largest insurance companies in the United States. He was the former Business Development Manager of a leading St. Kitts & Nevis fintech firm, where he oversaw client relationships, business development, and executive management. While in banking, Mr. Gajor provides direct leadership in marketing, corporate finance, and private banking, advising strategic discussions with global partners while serving a sizeable ultra-high-net-worth clientele. As an executive member of the Government Policy Group at Hamilton Reserve Bank, Mr. Gajor advises the Bank on government policies. Mr. Gajor is a Nevis Historical and Conservation Society board member, the Trustee of the world-renowned Alexander Hamilton Museum. He is also a board member of Fintech Bank Ltd, a duly licensed commercial bank headquartered in Malaysia. The Malaysian banking regulators fully approved Mr. Gajor’s board position. Mr. Gajor graduated from the University of New Haven with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management and a minor in Accounting.
Learn more about Hamilton Reserve Bank at: https://hrbank.com/
Police Officers of The Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force have been able to remove several illegal firearms and ammunition from communities around the Federation as a result of the operations they execute regularly.
For the year so far, they have conducted hundreds of searches on derelict vehicles and empty lots of land, in addition to over 1,000 searches on abandoned houses. Such exercises are just a few of the overall operations conducted by the Officers at the various Police Stations and units throughout the Federation. They also routinely carry out vehicle check points (VCPs), execute warrants and make arrests, among other things.
On September 03, 2021, while conducting a VCP at the South East Peninsula, Police Officers stopped and searched a motor car and its occupants. One (1) Taurus G2C 9mm pistol, two (2) magazines and ten (10) 9mm rounds were found in the bag of one of the persons in the vehicle. The items were taken into police custody along with the occupants of the vehicle.
On August 20, 2021, a search on an empty lot of land at Ponds Pasture resulted in one (1) High Point C9 9mm pistol with eight (8) 9mm rounds and one (1) magazine containing nine (9) 9mm rounds being taken into custody. Prior to that, a search on an abandoned building at East Park Range resulted in one (1) pistol magazine containing two (2) .40 rounds of ammunition being taken into custody.
To date, these finds have brought the total number of illegal firearms seized by the Police to eight (8).
Notwithstanding the additional duties brought on by the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the support they provide to the Ministry of Health when requested, the Officers have been able to continue playing their part to keep illegal firearms and ammunition off the streets of St. Kitts and Nevis.
The Guyana government is rejecting the agreement signed by the Heads of Delegation of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the Unity Platform of Venezuela, uniting the country’s claim to Guyana’s Essequibo.
In a terse statement on Wednesday morning, the Government of Guyana through its Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the agreement which was reportedly signed in Mexico on September 6, 2021, is “an overt threat to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Guyana.”
“Guyana cannot be used as an altar of sacrifice for settlement of Venezuela’s internal political differences,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement said as it added that while the Government of Guyana welcomes domestic accord within Venezuela, “an agreement defying international law and process is not a basis for mediating harmony.”
The border controversy between Guyana and Venezuela is “properly before the International Court of Justice and will remain there for a peaceful resolution,” Guyana has maintained.
Venezuela in its agreement rejects the International Court of Justice’s declaration of jurisdiction over the issue, and its urging of Guyana to engage in direct negotiations.
Under this agreement, the two sides unite on the decades-old claim to “Guyana’s Essequibo.”
This territory includes several oil exploration rigs which are currently producing some 120,000 (barrels a day) of crude from the Stabroek block.
In Guyana, President Mohamed Irfaan Ali is yet to meet with Opposition Leader Joseph Harmon on this and many other issues of national interests.
The President has called on the Opposition Leader to recognise him and his government has legitimately elected.
The US, which leads the world in COVID cases and deaths, is warning its citizens not to travel to Jamaica because of the current Virus wave there.
The third wave of COVID-19 causing a breakdown of Jamaica’s healthcare sector, and the United States’ top public health agency, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has warned Americans not to travel to the island.
Jamaica is now among the highest-risk COVID-19 destinations in the world for travelers, according to the CDC’s travel advisories list, which was updated on September 7th. Also on the high-risk list is Sri Lanka and the nation of Brunei on the island of Borneo.
With the new “Level 4: Covid-19 Very High” notice, the CDC stated, “avoid travel to Jamaica. If you must travel to Jamaica, make sure you are fully vaccinated before travel.” Level 4 is the highest COVID-19 ranking.
The CDC categorizes countries on the Level 4 list of they have had more than 500 cases per 100,000 residents in the past 28 days.
Jamaica, which has a population of roughly 3 million people, had over 20,000 cases for the month of August – close to 700 cases per 100,000 residents. In the first five days of September, the country had over 3,500 new cases compared to 3,081 for the entire month of July.
But despite the warning, the Ministry of Tourism said they are not panicking.
“We are joining roughly 80 other countries including many of our Caribbean neighbors. We have been here before and Americans still come. Our Resilient Corridor remains very safe. Hopefully, once we get a hold of our [COVID-19] numbers, we will be better categorized like before,” said Delano Seiveright, senior advisor in Jamaica’s Ministry of Tourism.
The United States isn’t the only country that has advised against travel to Jamaica.
Last week, the Foreign Office (FCDO) warned travelers in the United Kingdom not to travel to Jamaica due to a rise in COVID-19 cases. The FCDO updated its guidance last Saturday to advise against all non-essential travel to Jamaica. As a result, TUI, one of UK’s largest tour operators, canceled all flights to the island until September 11.
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