From 30 June, travellers to the Cayman Islands will no longer be required to provide a pre-arrival COVID-19 test and a mandated requirement to wear masks in indoor public areas will be lifted, according to new regulations released by government Friday evening.
Under the amended regulations, incoming passengers will no longer need to provide proof of a negative COVID test. However, they are still required to complete a travel declaration form on the Travel Cayman website no less than 72 hours prior to departing for the islands.
Anyone arriving in Cayman with COVID symptoms could be required to be tested and to quarantine until they are no longer infectious, as specified by the Medical
Officer of Health.
The new regulations expire on 31 Aug. 2022.
Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan, speaking with the Cayman Compass in a telephone interview Friday night, said the lifting of these restrictions eased “some of the hurdles” facing businesses in the tourism industry and heralded a return to full tourism.
“Obviously, this is the next step and fully recovering post-COVID, even though it’s not over, but trying to get back to normal, it is a difficult task of balancing health and safety, and then improvement and recovery of your economy,” Bryan said.
He added that the removal of the mask mandate and pre-arrival testing were “two key components that the industry wanted”.
Masks made voluntary
From 30 June, when the regulations come into force, the wearing of masks in public will no longer be mandatory. It will left to the discretion of individuals and restaurants/business owners, as well as those operating or managing a healthcare facility, a residential home care facility, or a prison or place of detention.
From that date, restaurant, hotel and bar staff will no longer be required to wear masks when serving customers.
However, the owner or operator of any business or facility to which the public has access has the right to implement a requirement to wear masks in its establishment, and anyone who refuses to do can legally be refused entry.
Under the regulations, students will no longer be required to wear masks at school.
As for public transport, the wearing of masks will be up to the discretion of the operators of taxis or buses, who also have the right to require any passenger wearing a mask to remove it briefly for the purposes of determining the identity of the person, the regulations state.
Bryan said, though the mask mandate is being lifted, individuals should remember they still have an obligation for personal responsibility.
“The action that we expect everybody to take is to remember COVID isn’t over, your freedoms may be coming back, but take caution,” he said.
The mandatory requirement to wear masks on aircraft bound for Cayman is also being lifted.
Bryan said this change was important, especially for the national flag carrier Cayman Airways, since the mandatory mask rule had placed it at a competitive disadvantage.
“Ever since the US airlines [removed the requirement of] wearing masks on their planes, it has been putting Cayman Airways at a disadvantage, one that affects the bottom line for Cayman Airways, because people will sometimes decide not to fly with our airline due to the fact that they were required to wear a mask on the plane, but not required to do so on other airlines,” he said.
Unvaccinated arrivals
Government has also removed the requirement for unvaccinated Caymanians and residents returning the islands to isolate upon their arrival.
Previously, all unvaccinated arrivals – other than young children who could take on the vaccination status of their parents – were required to quarantine for seven days.
Under the new protocols, unvaccinated Caymanians and residents must submit an application for a travel authorisation from Travel Cayman no less than five days prior to departing for the islands. They will also be required to comply with the written directions of the Medical Officer of Health, which may include a direction to carry out a COVID test.
Bryan said the removal of a quarantine restriction on unvaccinated Caymanians and residents meant those individuals could travel freely.
He said it gave a level of freedom to Caymanians to travel back and forth freely without any impediments, and enabled them “to choose whether they want to be vaccinated or not”.
Other unvaccinated travellers are not allowed to enter Cayman by plane. However, those with close ties to the islands can enter, but are still required to quarantine for seven days.
The requirement for cruise ship passengers to have completed an approved vaccine course at least 14 days prior to embarking on a cruise ship bound for Cayman remains in place.
No formal statement was issued by government on the new changes, instead a brief Government Information Services email simply notified the media of the gazettal of the new regulations was issued.
Pension holiday extended
Also on Friday, government released amendment regulations that extended the pension holiday to September.
The pension holiday, which suspends the requirement to make contributions, was expected to come to an end on 30 June.
Pension payments are required by law, but in April 2020, as a COVID-19 relief measure, the then Alden McLaughlin-led Progressives administration suspended payments and exempted employers, employees, and self-employed individuals from making mandatory contributions to pension plans.
Read the full regulations here:
Control and Management of COVID-19 No. 3 (Amendment) Regulations 2022
Control of COVID-19 (Travel) No. 3 Regulations 2022
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The article states that the new regulations will expire in two months. What does that mean? Will the government resume the old restrictions or will there be new ones?
Let us hope that they will get rid of Travel Cayman at the end of August and let us hope they will allow non-vaccinated visitors to return without quarantine.
So why keep Travel Cayman. It is just a pain for travelers
Applied months before our last 6 week visit, multiple calls and emails to inquire why no approval yet. Literally had to call the day before we were flying in to finally get someone to hit the approved button. Incompetence in cayman at it’s best again.
It seems a little mixed up that unvaccinated travelers have to quarantine for seven days but those off a cruise ship who’ve had a test 14 days prior can come on Island. Why does the government not taking into consideration that many of the unvaccinated have actually had Covid and now have natural immunity‘s which are truly better than vaccinations.
“Other unvaccinated travellers are not allowed to enter Cayman by plane. However, those with close ties to the islands can enter, but are still required to quarantine for seven days.”
So an unvaccinated Caymanian can do whatever they please, but an unvaccinated American can’t enter by plane. Oh that’s totally scientific.
Just like everything else the CG has done, this makes absolutely zero sense. Does anywhere else on the face of the earth have these types of unscientific restrictions?
Cruisers can still walk onto the island no problem, but air travelers have to deal with the portal. Again, this makes zero sense – as one commenter previously pointed out, they should just pay all of the Travel Cayman people to stay home and kill the portal. It would be WAY better for tourism. We get it, that the portal is a jobs program as admitted by the tourism minister, but kill it and let the tourists back and then they can get real jobs instead of dead end paper pushing.
We had such a great time when we visited (I would guess at least five times with a week stay at a condo each time), but with the portal still up and the unbelievably awful response by the CG to this whole thing, it isn’t likely we will come back.
👍 Travelers will just go fall in love with others unrestricted islands and never return. Caymanian govt is completely incompetent.
👍🏽
But still need to fill in completely unnecessary Travel Cayman form.
Why does the government find it impossible to reduce the number of its employees like every other business does?
According to Bryan “this gives freedom to Caymanians freedom to travel back and forth without impediments.”. Well I consider needing to complete a Certificate to Travel in order to return to your own country is an impediment and something that no other country requires. Time to stop this nonsense and find other jobs for Travel Cayman staff.
Obviously a decision based purely on increasing revenue.
Doesn’t the Cayman government care that the world is still very much in the Covid pandemic. A pandemic that destabilized the entire world. Even today more than 300 lives are lost daily in the US to Covid. If going on a vacation is important to an individual they should be willing to take a pre-arrival test and wear a mask on a plane for their safety and also the safety of others.
No issue with the testing requirement or masks, the issue is the inconsistencies with allowing caymanians and cruise visitors to enter without quarantine but non-resident homeowners still have to quarantine. The rest of the world is returning to normal. Destabilized the whole world was before we understood the science and the fear mongering. We’re 2 years in, cayman is the only one who continue to make stupid decisions and disregard the science. No quarantine for everyone and continue with testing every 3 days would have been the smart change, but they’ve proven themselves to be everything except smart.
Cayman government continues to prove to the world how incompetent they are. When an unvaxxed Caymanian can travel abroad and back (to countries with zero restrictions and higher chance of catching c19) and cruise ship passengers can enter without quarantine but homeowners still have to quarantine for 7 days make absolutely zero sense. Would have been smarter to keep the testing requirements (every 3 days or so) and eliminate quarantine so people can get out and spend their money while simultaneously ensuring negative status. If we’re spending as much as we do to travel and stay in cayman we don’t mind spending the $40 on testing on island.
They continue to kill the tourism industry. How many businesses are they going to lose before they stop with this nonsense? What will be left? The only country in the world that is acting like the don’t know the science after 2 years. Cayman is going to keep losing tourism to other islands like Aruba that only require an entry test. UK govt dropped everything months ago. We need smarter people in government.
The travel cayman has got to go, stop the wast of time, it is nonsense.