(St. Lucia News Online) —  A COVID-19 pre-screening tent is being set up at the Hewanorra International Airport in Vieux Fort as Saint Lucia prepares to activate its new and updated travel protocols on Thursday, July 9, 2020.

Prime Minister Allen Chastanet made this disclosure via his official Facebook page on Sunday, July 5.

“The objective for adding this facility is to assist airport, security, and health officials with improving the management and enforcement of the new protocols for visitor arrivals coming into the country. We are leaving no stone unturned in our quest to balance health security and economic activity,” Chastanet said.

The prime minister said he checked out the tent whilst carrying out his usual weekend project site visits.

“I checked out several of the ongoing projects happening in the south,” he said.

The government said in a July 2 release that travelers will be required to obtain a negative polymerized chain reaction test within seven days of travel unless they are arriving from countries in the ‘Travel Bubble’ designated by the Government of Saint Lucia.

“Visitors traveling only from destinations that have zero or a low instance of COVID-19 cases will be exempt from the seven-day pre-testing requirement. These destinations currently include Antigua, Barbuda, Aruba, Anguilla, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Bonaire, British Virgin Islands, Curaçao, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Monsterrat, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Martin, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Martin, Trinidad and Tobago and Turks and Caicos. Visitors with a travel history from these areas in the last 14 days will also be exempt from quarantine,” the release said.

READ MORE ABOUT THE NEW TRAVEL PROTOCOLS HERE