NASSAU, BAHAMAS — The ban on travel to and from Haiti has been prolonged for one more 30 days as of today, in accordance with an amendment to the emergency orders.
The most recent order, dated April 11, read: “Effective 12am on Monday the twelfth day of April, 2021, the prohibition of travel to and from Haiti as laid out in paragraph (3), shall be prolonged for an extra period of 30 days.”
Prior to the ban, there have been direct flights between Haiti and The Bahamas.
That is now the second time the ban has been prolonged because it was first implemented on February 15.
At the moment, Attorney General Carl Bethel said the aim of the ban was to mitigate risk of a surge of COVID-19 cases in The Bahamas as Haitians celebrated carnival, which is normally observed for a couple of weeks in February.
The order was prolonged for one more month on March 13, which Minister of Tourism Dionisio D’Aguilar attributed to concerns amongst healthcare professionals about quite a few cases of COVID-19 originating from that country.
The most recent orders didn’t provide a reason for the extension of the ban.
Nevertheless, The Bahamas has seen a rise in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations recently, with nearly 200 additional cases recorded within the last week.
Director of the National HIV/AIDS and Infectious Disease Programme Dr Nikkiah Forbes yesterday told Eyewitness News “it’s fair to say we’re in the early stages of a 3rd wave” of the virus.
