LUCEA, Hanover — Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA) President Clifton Reader is of the view that it may not be necessary to continue with stringent COVID-19 measures at this time, given that the Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus is not as severe as previous strains.

Reader advanced his opinion in an interview with the Jamaica Observer on Monday amidst a raging debate about the lifting of travel restrictions and mandates imposed by the Government to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus.

His comment also came as COVID-19 hospitalisations continued a steady decrease from 455, reported by the health and wellness ministry on February 2, to 420 on February 3; 412 on February 4; 407 on February 5; 392 on February 6; and 387 on February 7.

Arguing that the appetite to lift restrictions did not, rightly, exist in the country a year ago, as only 23 per cent of the population has been vaccinated, the JHTA president said, “Maybe now it is not as necessary because the strain that we have now [Omicron] has proven not to put people in hospitals at the rate that Delta [variant] was putting people into hospitals, and… we can move on with a different decision-making model now.”

A day after Reader gave his view, the JHTA issued a news release saying that, “even while the virus and new variants remain”, the association believes that “Jamaica can be safely returned to a level of near normalcy that allows for greater social, professional, and commercial interaction”.

Added the JHTA: “All over the world many countries are moving to scale back restrictive measures such as compulsory health passports, mask-wearing, and shortened business opening hours.”

On Monday, Reader made reference to the Dominican Republic which, he said, took a big risk by not requiring most visitors to that island to be vaccinated or present a negative COVID-19 test or quarantine upon entry. He noted that despite this, there are other areas in which the policy did not pay off as well, in comparison to Jamaica that took a gradual approach.

The Dominican Republic recorded 700,000 more visitors in December 2021 in comparison to what it had attracted not only before the pandemic but in any single month. This has pushed 2021 totals to nearly five million visitors, more than any other country in the Caribbean.

In December, financial analysts calculated that the country was having its best year economically in 30 years, according to a January 27 article in The New York Times.

The article stated that many travellers chose the Dominican Republic over other resort destinations because of that country’s relaxed requirements for most incoming travellers. On the other hand, authorities in that country have chosen to manage COVID-19 by pushing vaccination and mask-wearing among those who interact with tourists.

“We knew it was a risk and we wanted to take it,” the Times quoted Jacqueline Mora, deputy minister of tourism, who added that the strategy has worked. She noted that the country estimates that it earned around US$5.7 billion from tourism last year while maintaining a COVID-19 death rate lower than Mexico — the other major destination to take a similarly lax approach to entry — and many other countries, including the United States, that imposed strict restrictions.

In contrast, Jamaica recorded a 49.2 per cent decline in tourist arrivals for December 2021 when compared to 2019 before the pandemic.

Data requested from the tourism ministry by the Observer last week indicated that total visitor arrivals for December 2021 was 247,622, compared to 487,391 in 2019.

The data also showed that in 2019 Jamaica recorded gross earnings of US$3.6 billion from tourism, compared to US$2.061 billion in 2021.

In relation to the push to get more Jamaicans vaccinated, Reader is of the view that the spread of the Omicron variant has left many people with natural immunity. As such, he believes that, while talk of vaccination rates in the tourism sector is important, there is a need for natural immunity to be taken into consideration.

“We [in the tourism sector] are still doing the masking; we are still doing the physical distancing, washing of hands, sanitising, managing public spaces — all of those things. But I think the missing link that very few people are considering is the fact that there is natural immunity out there,” stated Reader.

“For me, we should do away with talking about positivity rate and start to talk about hospital capacity and bed space. Those are the parameters, basic tenets, and markers that we should be using to judge where we are now,” he said.

“If we continue to believe and think that we are still in the same Delta zone, we are going to manage with the same harsh penalties and protocols as when we were in Delta,” Reader added.

He said the tourism sector has worked well with the Ministry of Health and Wellness over the past month to recognise this fact. As such, the thinking is now different and the country is going to move forward in a different way.