Sputnik V not recognised in St Maarten

ST. MAARTEN DOES NOT ACCEPT THE RUSSIAN-MANUFACTURED SPUTNIK V
and its Minister of Health, Social Development and Labour, Omar Ottley is adamant that
travellers jabbed with it will nevertheless be considered unvaccinated according to his country’s
protocol.
“We never considered Sputnik V, and no, we will not consider it either,” Ottley responded in a
recent interview with www.aroundtheregions.com
St Maarten accepts only Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson brands of the
vaccine, the Minister said in the exclusive with this media house.
“Only those four we are accepting in St Maarten; they (nationals) can return home if they are
fully vaccinated for a period of two weeks or more. We allow you to return home without
testing,” the government minister assured his countrymen trapped in foreign countries.
He said these decisions were “well thought out” and his country intends to stand firmly by
them.
St Maarten has banned several countries entrance to the island deeming the COVID-19 pandemic
to be “out of control” in those states. Georgetown and Port-of-Spain are the only two CARICOM
states listed among the banned countries.
The others are Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, French Guiana,
India, Nepal, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, South Africa, Suriname, Uruguay and
Venezuela, Ottley told this media house in an exclusive Monday.
He justified Philipsburg’s decision noting that the Dutch Caribbean Island categorised nations as
low risk, medium risk, high risk and banned countries.
“So, the banned countries are those where COVID is out of control and they are not able to
enter St Maarten,” the health official explained.

He said all countries on the restricted list and airlines operating those routes have been notified.
Since the outbreak of the highly contagious virus in December 2019, official statistics show 447
Guyanese and 747 Trinidadians perished after contracting the infectious agent. There have been
some 3.87 million deaths worldwide from the virus.
Ottley said St Maarten started its vaccination campaign very early during the outbreak when less
than a dozen cases were detected on the island. This, he explained placed his ministry under
immense pressure as the other countries began their vaccination process in the height of the
pandemic.
“When we started our vaccination programme, we were like at about 10 cases so we had
numerous challenges from the public as many of them (believed) COVID didn’t exist. Other
countries started their vaccination programme in the height of the pandemic when persons were
dying left, right and centre. Unfortunately, we were hit by a third wave and this made people
realise the seriousness of this COVID pandemic, so we have a lot of people coming forward now
taking their vaccines,” the Health Minister explained.

St Maarten has a population of 40,700 and according to the health minister, some 20,000 have
received their first jab. Those hospitalised in the past month have not yet been inoculated against
the deadly virus, Ottley disclosed.
Guyana’s Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony, was unavailable for comment and Foreign
Affairs Minister, Hugh Todd’s office requested written queries.