All Incoming Passengers Must Present Negative COVID-19 Tests

Effective Thursday (March 4), all persons entering the country (both Jamaicans and non-nationals) will be required to present a negative coronavirus (COVID-19) test at check-in for their flights.

The test must be conducted within 72 hours prior to the date of travel.

This was announced by Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, at a digital press conference on Sunday (Feb. 28), during which he gave an update on revised COVID-19 measures the Government has instituted to contain the spread of the virus.

Mr. Holness noted that Jamaicans are now included in this measure, which previously only applied to non-Jamaicans, given the recent spike in COVID-19 positive cases in the country.

“We had great faith that our Jamaicans coming home would have this very high sense of patriotism and understand the pressure that our system would be under, if they were to behave in deviant ways from what we recommend as socially responsible in the pandemic. It has not always been the case that our travelling Jamaicans do this – certainly in the maintenance of the quarantine and it is having an impact on the numbers,” he said.

The Prime Minister pointed that when the Government first began its controlled re-entry programme for non-Jamaicans where pre-testing was required, it had been contemplated at that time to also test Jamaicans, but they had been exempted due to certain considerations.
“We studied it very carefully and we thought that based upon everything – the legal considerations, the stress it would place on our travelling population – that we would not require them to test,” he said.

He noted however that “given where we are where, it is now a threat to lives…with this new spike…. we think it is now justified in these circumstances to require Jamaicans coming home to present a negative COVID-19 test.”

Turning to business travellers who were always required to present a COVID-negative test, then tested again upon arrival in Jamaica, the Prime Minister informed that they will now be required to pay for that test.

“The Government has to shift this burden because obviously the limited budget that we have, in every area we have to try and save. So, we will shift the burden of the PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test unto the business traveller,” Mr. Holness explained.

In the meantime, the Prime Minister informed that the Government is continuing to restrict flights coming directly from the United Kingdom (UK), “and this will continue until the 22nd of March 2021.”