The United Kingdom government confirmed on the 24th June that the Cayman Islands has been added to its green travel list, this means those entering Britain from the Cayman Islands will no longer be required to quarantine from 30 June.
Governor Martyn Roper, responding to the update on his Facebook page, said he was “delighted” with the decision.
“This is welcome recognition for Cayman’s outstanding response to the global pandemic… This move from amber to green comes as a result of a huge effort from the Ministry of Health, HSA and my office. I was also grateful to the Premier for writing to the UK Minister,” Roper stated.
He added that his office had provided detailed updates to the UK Department of Transport and had “set out a compelling case as to why Cayman should be green and this latest review has proved that”.
Premier Wayne Panton added the news was “indeed excellent and welcomed”.
“This means that the UK has recognised our excellent record in relation to our management of COVID-19,” Panton said.
“I cannot thank the UK Government enough for providing us with free vaccines. I also thank the people in the Cayman Islands who have taken the opportunity to get vaccinated. I still urge anyone who has not taken the vaccine to do so in order to help keep our residents safe once we are able to reopen our border,” he added.
The UK Department of Transport announced the new additions to the green list, along with some changes to the amber and red lists. Previously, only 11 countries and jurisdictions were on the green list, which now includes 27 places.
While the previous list did include some British Overseas Territories, there were no Caribbean places on it. The list released today adds not only Cayman, but also Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, and Turks and Caicos Islands.
The Northern Ireland Executive, a devolved government, earlier today released an identical list, before the UK government announced its updated version. Usually, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England share the same ‘traffic light list’ of green, amber and red countries.
Portugal, which was removed from the UK’s green list in the last review three weeks ago, remains on the amber list.
Six have also been moved from the amber list to the red list – where UK residents are advised not to visit – including the Dominican Republic, Eritrea, Haiti, Mongolia, Tunisia and Uganda.
UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said in a Twitter post that UK residents who are fully vaccinated will not have to isolate when travelling from amber list countries.
Green list
- Anguilla
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Australia
- Balearic Islands
- Barbados
- Bermuda
- British Antarctic Territory
- British Indian Ocean Territory
- British Virgin Islands
- Brunei
- Cayman Islands
- Dominica
- Falkland Islands
- Faroe Islands
- Gibraltar
- Grenada
- Iceland
- Israel and Jerusalem
- Madeira
- Malta
- Montserrat
- New Zealand
- Pitcairn Islands
- South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
- Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha
- Singapore
- Turks and Caicos Islands