 The government of St. Lucia has welcomed the mandatory pre-departure testing for all international arrivals to England. The measure comes into effect worldwide on 15 January 2021, including for passengers departing from Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Levis, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. A limited exemption has been granted until 21 January for arrivals from Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, and St. Lucia to help Britons in those countries return home. More from Daniel Du Bois. Since the opening of St. Lucia's borders on June 4, 2020, St. Lucia has had stringent measures in place for incoming visitors. Among them is a negative PCR test. Prime Minister Hon. Alan Shastney has been a strong advocate regionally and internationally for the adoption of PCR testing before travel and continuously championed the policy as vital to the survival and restoration of confidence in international travel. The Prime Minister's statements were made on the heels of the recent announcement that passengers travelling to England and Scotland by air, sea and rail after 15 January 2021 will be required to present a negative PCR test certificate before they are allowed to travel. Canada also implemented the same policy on January 7, 2021 with some states in the US also following suit. It is welcome news that the United States, Canada and the UK have recently all decided to impose now that all persons coming back to those countries would require a COVID test. At the beginning of COVID, St. Lucia and our technocrat sat down and developed a protocol on how we could coexist with COVID. And one of the things that was very clear to us is that if we were to open up our international borders, it would require a PCR test for persons coming to St. Lucia. And we were also able to create a tourism bubble here on the island to help protect the guests that were coming and as well as being able to protect our citizens. Shortly after the opening of borders in June 2020, the Prime Minister of St. Lucia was featured on several international news networks and newspapers, some of which included CNBC, BBC and the New York Times, where he advocated for airlines and countries to implement pre-testing to help boost consumer confidence in travel and tourism. Causing persons to be pre-tested a certain number appeared before getting on the plate and I think brings confidence back to the tourists themselves, as well as protecting the state. And I also heard the idea of people being pre-tested before they go back in order to not have to do the quarantine. I want to say that St. Lucia supports that policy strongly. We've shown that we have implemented that successfully in this country. We think it's just crazy that the airline industry has not adopted pre-testing as a prerequisite before getting on a plane. St. Lucia has been able to successfully reopen the tourism sector with thousands returning to work and many off-shoot businesses operating once again. Reporting for the Office of the Prime Minister, I am Danielle Dubois.