by Brian Major
Last updated: 10:18 AM ET, Fri August 7, 2020
The U.S. State Department is advising Americans against travel to The Bahamas due to "health and safety measures and COVID-related conditions."
In an August 6 travel advisory, the State Department and warns travelers to The Bahamas may experience "travel prohibitions, stay-at-home orders, business closures and other emergency conditions within The Bahamas due to COVID-19." The advisory notes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a Level 3 Travel Health Notice for the Bahamas due to COVID-19.
The State Department's warning against Bahamas travel follows the agency's lifting of its Global Level 4 Health Advisory, according to Daniel Durazo, a spokesperson at the U.S. Embassy of the Bahamas quoted in a Bahamas Tribune report. The March 19 advisory had instructed citizens to avoid all international travel due to COVID-19's global impact.
"With conditions improving in some countries while potentially deteriorating in others, the [State Department] has returned to our previous system of country-specific levels of travel advice (with levels from 1-4 depending on country-specific conditions)," said Durazo.
"We continue to recommend U.S. citizens exercise caution when traveling abroad due to the unpredictable nature of the pandemic," he continued. "Under this return to country-specific levels of travel advice, the travel advisory for The Bahamas is now Level 4 (do not travel), due to health and safety measures and COVID-related conditions."
Ironically U.S. visitors were unlikely to return to the territory in significant numbers before Thursday's State Department advisory.
On Monday Dr. Hubert Minnis, The Bahamas' prime minister, instituted a national lockdown to curb COVID-19's "rapid" spread across the territory. Weeks earlier The Bahamas re-opened its borders to U.S. travelers, although with the stipulation that all visitors were subject to mandatory 14-day quarantines.
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