St. Vincent and the Grenadines has made a short list of countries which are considered ‘very low risk’. Persons travelling from these countries and who have not travelled to or transited through any country designated as high, medium or low risk within 21 days prior to travel to Barbados, will not be required to take a COVID-19 PCR test prior to or on arrival.

The other countries on the list include:  Dominica, Grenada, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Cayman Islands, St. Lucia, New Zealand, Finland, Montserrat, and St Kitts and Nevis.

From Friday, September 4, Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Suriname will move from the medium risk category to high risk, while Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana will move into the same category from low risk.

Spain, Italy, France and Sweden, which were all formerly categorised as medium risk, will now be deemed high risk. There has also been some movement downward with Australia, Egypt and Sri Lanka moving from the medium risk to low risk category.

Acting Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Kenneth George explained today that the determination of risk was based on the cumulative seven-day total of new cases per 100 000 of the population, and also took into account the positivity rates.