French Caribbean islands ask tourists to leave as COVID cases increase

In a shocking incident, French Caribbean islands have asked tourists to leave after recording a spike in the COVID cases in the region. On Tuesday, French Overseas Territories Minister Sebastien Lecornu and Health Minister Olivier Véran were due to travel to the Caribbean as concern grows over rising cases of infections in French overseas territories around the world.

The island of Martinique has already made its lockdown rules more strict and has also told travellers visiting the island to leave as soon as possible. Till now, more than half of the mainland population in France has received their two doses but the number of vaccinated people is far below in overseas French territories (from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean to the Pacific). On Monday, the Caribbean island of Martinique asked all non-essential stores across the region to shut. All the hotels, resorts and beaches were also closed and people were told to leave immediately.
The decision was taken after Martinique recorded 1200 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. As of now, only 22 percent of the island population has received the first dose of the vaccination.

A top official of Martinique, Stanislas Cazelles said, “These rules are strict and they will be lifted as soon as the health situation allows it.” Martinique and neighbouring Guadeloupe both have imposed a lockdown after the number of infections increased. A curfew has been imposed in the Pacific territory of French Polynesia.