BASSETERRE, St.Kitts (Friday 6th November 2020)- For health reasons, St.Kitts and Nevis has exited the ‘Caribbean Bubble’ due to concerns over travel entry requirements of member countries not being as strict as the Federation as well as reports of community spread.

So revealed Prime Minister and Minister of National Security Dr. Timothy Harris during an appearance on the weekly ‘Leadership Matters’ aired on ZIZ, Tuesday 3rd November 2020.

“We have taken notes about reports of actual or potential community spread in some member states. We are concerned that the travel entry requirements are also not uniformed as requested by CARPHA [Caribbean Public Health Agency] with a number of member countries having less stringent requirements than those we have put in place in St.Kitts and Nevis to keep the virus at bay,” he highlighted.

According to Dr. Harris: “While we were working on our local entry requirements, we were in discussion with our regional Caribbean neighbours to see if there was a common platform that we could use to enhance travel in the Caribbean region by way of a Caribbean Travel Bubble. The Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), working with CARICOM countries put together recommendations for a CARICOM Travel Bubble. The regional travel bubble was intended to facilitate low risk intra regional travel of nationals of the Caribbean Community, the movement of essential workers and inter regional travel of visitors to the region in an effort to revive tourism while respecting necessary health precautions.”

He went on to say that the Bubble would have seen persons coming from qualifying Caribbean countries forego the mandatory 14-day quarantine period  once they had a negative PCR test  within 72 hours of arrival  within a member state participating in the Bubble.

Dr. Harris said the borders of St.Kitts and Nevis were still closed on Friday, September 18th when the CARICOM Travel Bubble came into effect and could not participate in the initial launch.

“We, however, indicated our support in principle for the concept. Since the announcement of the formation of the Caribbean Bubble, we have seen a change in the risk level of a number of countries within the Bubble with Antigua and Barbuda, St. Lucia and Barbados experiencing a resurgence of new cases,” he commented.

In addressing the reasoning behind the government’s choice to exit the Bubble, he shared: “We cannot therefore as a nation with a very low risk category assessment enter a common space or Bubble with countries at a higher risk level because we would be exposing our people to elevated health risks. Similarly, it will be unwise given our low risk status to participate in a Bubble with others with community spread. If we were to do this, we would very quickly see the reintroduction of the virus and possibly the overwhelming of our healthcare system and consequential deaths.”

Dr. Harris informed that night that “Having discussed this matter at length yesterday with the Cabinet and our National COVID-19 Task Force , and having arrived at a consensus, I have to date advised the Secretary General of CARICOM Ambassador Irwin LaRocque  that St.Kitts and Nevis has, in our national interest, albeit for health reasons withdrawn from the effective immediately.”

In making his presentation on that platform, he pointed out that “St.Kitts and Nevis is regarded as a success story that is admired by many regionally and internationally. To our great credit at this time, we have zero active cases, zero hospitalization and zero deaths from COVI-19.”

He reminded that the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention recently assessed the Federation of St.Kitts and Nevis as very low risk its recent travel advisory which is one of the lowest risk categories for any country.

Additionally, Dr. Harris told that the Chief Immigration Officer has advised the opening of the borders- on 31st October- has proceeded at pace and without major adverse developments.

“You would recall that in advance of the reopening of our borders, we had put in place protocols and procedures to keep our frontline workers, and by extension our people safe. These protocols are very stringent with the requirement of a pre-arrival PCR testing and a 14-day quarantine or vacation in place experience for 14 days for arriving international passengers,” he pointed out.

To date, the Federation has recorded a total of nineteen (19) COVID-19 patients; all of whom have recovered.