Two-day requirement for visitors from the US and Canada 

A mere days after being added to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) highest-risk category, Aruba has implemented a tighter COVID-19 testing window amid the rise of the Omicron variant. 

Aruba is the most recent Caribbean destination to make the move, following The Bahamas, the US Virgin Islands, Antigua, Bonaire, among others.

In a major change to its testing rules, Aruba, which is a Dutch island off the coast of South America and is a popular Caribbean winter getaway, has implemented a two-day requirement for visitors from the US and Canada. The new rules mean all visitors need to complete a PCR or RT-PCR test (antigen tests are not accepted).

Aruba will also not give travelers the option to test upon arrival. 

The rules apply regardless of vaccination status. The window means travelers need to take the test and receive their results in a two-day window prior to arrival on the Dutch Caribbean island.

Children aged 11 and under are exempt from the testing requirement. Aruba had been using a 72-hour testing window that is no longer applicable.  

The CDC has placed Aruba at Level 4 with a “very high level” of COVID-19 risk in its latest travel advisory on Tuesday. The CDC places a destination at Level 4 when more than 500 cases per 100,000 residents are registered in the past 28 days.

The Aruba Tourism Authority explained that the change is “a precautionary measure to protect our residents and our visitors. The level of risk of each country is identified based on government health data, particularly the total number of new cases compared to the total population”.