Jamaica — along with Dominica and St Lucia — now faces the risk of being downgraded to the United Kingdom’s red list of countries, according to an ITV News report. As the number of novel coronavirus cases continue to rise on the island, travel expert Paul Charles has indicated that the island and its Caricom counterparts will lose their medium- and low-risk status on the UK’s travel watch list and share company with a number of countries deemed as high-risk destinations.

“Significant changes could be coming to some Caribbean islands — Jamaica, St Lucia, and Dominica turning red. And Montserrat, Anguilla, Antigua, and Turks and Caicos [could be] demoted from green to amber,” another news outlet quoted Charles, who is CEO of a UK-based booking company PC Agency.

The news comes as Jamaica, on Monday, hit a record 879 new cases with a positivity rate of 43.9 per cent. In addition, the country recorded 14 deaths with 607 people hospitalised.

At the same time, St Lucia’s Ministry of Health, Wellness and Elderly Affairs confirmed 42 new cases of COVID-19 from 181 samples taken on Sunday.

In response to the news, senior advisor and tourism communications strategist in Jamaica’s Ministry of Tourism Delano Seiveright told the Jamaica Observer that, along with the Jamaica Tourist Board, they are currently engaged in a strategic retreat to discuss, among other matters, how to address being placed on the UK’s red list.

“If Jamaica is moved from the amber list to the UK red list it would be a major setback, but hopefully a temporary one. We are hopeful that any change will only last a few weeks as we expect the COVID infection numbers to decline in due course,” he noted.

“Several neighbouring and major tourism destinations have been on the red list for a while including the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Cuba,” said Seiveright.

At present, only UK citizens and residents are allowed entry into the country if they are returning from a country on the red list. Additionally, citizens and residents landing in England from a red list country need to pay £2,285 to quarantine in a Government-approved hotel.

With this in mind, Seiveright noted: “Therefore, hardly anyone would fly, resulting in a pull-out of almost all flights between Jamaica and the UK.” He, however, expressed hope that Jamaica will be able to reduce transmission of the novel coronavirus with the current measures, and that the island’s airports, come October, should receive a total of 14 flights from several UK cities led by TUI, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic.

Seiveright added that Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett recently negotiated with travel partners for the recommencement and addition of new services from London Heathrow, London Gatwick, Manchester, and Birmingham.

When asked by the Business Observer if he thought cancellation of trips from the UK would result in a significant falloff in tourism receipts, the advisor responded in the negative.

“The UK is our third-largest market but still represents, in pre-COVID times, roughly eight per cent of our stopover arrivals. The United States is still our largest and most important market with just under 70 per cent of stopover arrivals in pre-COVID times, and Canada second with just under 15 per cent of the business also in pre-COVID times. Since the onset of COVID the US traveller has dominated,” he explained.

Seiveright said that, given that the winter season usually produces Jamaica’s highest tourism receipts, the country has enough time to return to the UK’s amber list, or even ascend to the green list.