Charge d’Affaires Keith Gilges Clarifies New U.S. Travel Regulations

While backlash from a possible bad review after the viral video is less of a concern, the tourism sector is bracing for the impact of the new travel regulations being implemented in the United States.  On Friday, a comprehensive strategy was issued by the U.S. government of the change in quarantine regulations whenever a citizen or tourist visits that country.  The new travel regulations speak to returning citizens taking a COVID-19 test before boarding a plane.  Upon arrival in the U.S., they must undergo a mandatory seven days of quarantine, which is in line with C.D.C. guidelines.  Airlines are also not allowed to board passengers who cannot produce a negative PCR or Rapid Antigen test.  Today, News Five spoke with U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Keith Gilges, who broke down the reasoning behind the decision as that country has recorded over four hundred thousand COVID-19 deaths already.

Keith Gilges

Keith Gilges, Chargé d’Affaires, U.S. Embassy in Belize

“We’ve now surpassed the four hundred thousand mark for the number of deaths and to put that in contrast; that is roughly the population of Belize. That’s the number of people that have died. A little more scary than that is we only hit three hundred thousand in December. So to have already hit four hundred thousand, we are likely to hit five hundred thousand sometime in February. So averaging three thousand deaths per day, there was a need to do something and to take strong action. So what the Biden’s Administration has done is put together a comprehensive strategy and I get that there are parts of that strategy that are tough, particularly when you are trying to balance the effort to increase economic development, to increase tourism that is so important to Belize, but at the same time, for the U.S., we have to be looking at the public health implications. So the administration released a comprehensive strategy. One part of that was to say frankly don’t travel. And that was the guidance. You shouldn’t travel unless it is entirely necessary. If you are going to travel, when you come to re-enter the United States, you will need to take a COVID test and show that you are negative before you board a plane. It is a little bit different than Belize is doing. Belize let’s you board the plane and then come down and then you either show a test or get tested. So in many ways that’s no different. Now, the part about quarantining; that is guidance. Those are recommendations. The CDC recommends that you get tested before you travel.”