Cayman Islands Will Now Allow Children to Take Parent’s Vaccination Status

The Cayman Islands Government is easing travel restrictions for families with children traveling to the Cayman Islands. 

“After collaborative assessment of our COVID-19 response, we Weill officially be moving into a coordinate phase 5 of our COVID-19 response,” Cayman Premier Hon. Wayne Panton said on Thursday. “We are quite satisfied that this has been the right move to amend this policy.”

The Government announced during a press conference that all children, whether they are residents or visitors, arriving in the Cayman Islands will be able to take on the vaccination status of the adult they are traveling with. 

Ultimately, that means that no vaccinated adult or child (aged 0-11) who is traveling with them will need to quarantine. 

All travelers, regardless of their vaccinated status, will still be required to take and receive a negative LFT or PCR test before travel due to the continued spread of COVID, largely stemming from the Omicron variant, in the country. Children aged 4 and younger will not need to test. 

Those who are unvaccinated, or are taking that status for their parents or guardians, will still be required to quarantine. However, the Islands are reducing the quarantine time from 14-days to 10-days. 

All travelers who are coming from a country with less than 60% vaccination rates will still have to quarantine, as well, though that period is dropping from 10-days to 7-days. 

Travelers in quarantine may exit via a certified LFT test and not a PCR test after being contacted by Travel Cayman.   

The move is encouraging news for the Cayman Islands’ tourism sector, which has suffered from stops and starts since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the Minister for Tourism and Transport Hon. Kenneth Bryan. 

‘After two years of uncertainty in the tourism and hospitality sectors, there is more light on the horizon and more reason to be optimistic about the future,” he said on Thursday. 

In light of the announcement, Bryan also revealed that United Airlines is set to restart its service from Chicago, Houston, Washington D.C., and Newark starting in February along with the restart of American Airlines service from Miami. 

Following that, Delta Air Lines will restart service from Atlanta and Southwest will do the same from Ft. Lauderdale in March. 

The islands had been locked down since March 2020 and had released its plan to reopen in five stages last summer. That plan started to ease travel restrictions in August, with vaccinated tourists able to come in without quarantine in October 2021.