Ministry of Health & Wellness Responds to Latest U.S. Travel Announcement

Earlier today, the United States government announced that it is ending the requirement that international airplane travelers test negative for COVID-19 before entering the U.S. This mandate will expire on June twelfth, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has determined that the testing requirement is no longer needed. In Belize, the Ministry of Health and Wellness already began lifting several of those measures a few weeks ago. While the latest announcement from C.D.C. comes as good news for the tourism sector, the Ministry of Health and Wellness is anticipating a comprehensive report on Monday by the U.S. agency on the lifting of this travel requirement.

Kevin Bernard

On the phone: Kevin Bernard, Minister of Health & Wellness

“We had removed restrictions except for unvaccinated persons leaving the country and persons coming into the country were required to test only if they were not vaccinated or couldn’t prove vaccination, as opposed to the United States where, if you’re traveling to the United States currently, until now that the CDC has made the announcement, whether you are vaccinated or not, they were requiring you to take a negative COVID test [result].  So I’m not sure what will be the final recommendation to the government, the U.S., in terms of their other restrictions.  We are, of course, in our Belize context, continuing to maintain that we need to keep our regulation as is for now where once you cannot prove that you are vaccinated that you provide a negative test coming in, but that is not required if you are vaccinated.  That’s the current position of the Government of Belize.”