A week after dancehall deejay Elephant Man was freed of charges for breaching the Disaster Risk Management Act (DRMA), he is elated that COVID-19 tests will no longer be required to travel to Jamaica, come April 15.

“I feel great just knowing that we’re getting back on track with everything. I think it was kinda hectic trying to get on the plane and trying to do a COVID test. Sometimes you miss a flight because you had to be taking a test. It’s a good thing knowing that things are getting back on track with less COVID. More tourists will be able to come again so it’s gonna be great for our music again. We can have whole heapa stage shows again,” an overjoyed Elephant Man told the Jamaica Observer’s Splash on Wednesday.

The announcement was made by Prime Minister Andrew Holness in a statement on Wednesday. Currently, individuals travelling to Jamaica must present a negative COVID-19 at least three days before their arrival.

Holness also announced that people in enclosed public spaces will no longer be required to wear masks, although it is encouraged.

Elephant Man’s run-in with the law was an ongoing matter before the court for two years.

According to a police report, Elephant Man, whose given name is Oneil Bryan, arrived at the Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, St James, in March 2020, along with members of his team, and was asked to declare the countries he’d recently visited.

Elephant Man was reportedly on tour in Europe, but did not declare all the countries to which he had travelled, which is an immigration requirement. At the time, the Jamaican Government had put in place safety measures at ports to identify whether people who travelled outside the country had been to countries where the number of novel coronavirus infections were high.

There was, however, not enough evidence to convict him.

In speaking to the Observer, the entertainer said it was a frustrating experience, but he was dedicated to see it through.

“It was so crazy. I always tell people that I love my music; I don’t do it for the money. When that happened, certain things got blown out of proportion, but I was down to stick with it through the end. I never missed a court case. Big up the judge, my lawyers, the immigration officer… As mi seh, sometimes things happen and get blown out of proportion, but we stick by the court,” he said.

Elephant Man is urging Jamaicans to still take the necessary precautions regarding the novel coronavirus.

“You know seh when the prime minister seh no mask, mi still wear my mask go KFC. I’m so addicted to it. I was in Turks and Caicos with Laa Lee and I was still in mask, and they told me to take it off and I was, like, ‘I don’t care.’ When mi inna America, mi still haffi draw fi mask. We’re not trying to spread this thing further,” he said.

A former member of the Scare Dem Crew, Elephant Man is known for such smash hits as Signal The Plane, Nuh Linga, Willie Bounce, and Pon Di River.