Joy as flights from Germany to Jamaica resume
MONTEGO BAY, St James — As of today, flights between Jamaica and Germany will resume as the European nation no longer considers Jamaica as a risk area for contracting the novel caronavirus.
Jamaica Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett welcomed the official announcement.
“I was very happy to learn that the Government of Germany has removed Jamaica from its list of countries with a particularly high risk of infection due to widespread occurrence of SARS-CoV-2 virus and its variants,” said Bartlett in a news release issued by the Ministry of Tourism.
The tourism minister, who is currently on Government business in Europe, where he is engaging with multiple international tourism interests, senior Government officials, and a moment with the King and Queen of Spain, described the latest development as positive.
“This is a positive development, as it shows Germans that we are indeed a safe destination and our efforts to contain the virus have been effective. In fact, our resilience corridor for our visitors remains safe, with very, very low incidents of positive cases,” the tourism minister said.
For his part, senior advisor/strategist in the tourism ministry, Delano Seiveright said major airlines have given their commitment to resuming flights to the destination in coming weeks and months.
“Germany is our second largest market in Europe, and Frankfurt is a massive and important European hub. So we are very happy about this announcement and we are equally pleased to note that we will have the restart of twice-weekly flights, starting July, between Germany and Jamaica by Condor Airlines,” said Seiveright.
The tourism executive also revealed that Jamaica is likely to have regular service starting November, by Eurowings, also between Frankfurt and Montego Bay.
“The Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) has been working non-stop despite all the crises brought on by the pandemic”, Seiveright noted.
Reaffirming Jamaica’s stringent health and safety protocols, Seiveright reiterated that, “everyone must present a negative COVID-19 test result in order to be granted entry to Jamaica.” Beyond that, “it is heartening to know that most Germans will be fully vaccinated by summer.”
According to the latest reports from the German Health Ministry, 11.3 million Germans are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and 33 million people have received a first dose, representing 40 per cent of the population. Before the end of the summer everyone in Germany would have been offered a vaccine.