The World Health Organization (WHO) is urging countries that are dependent on tourism to be careful not to re-open their borders to tourists too quickly.

Speaking today (July 19) during a question and answer session on COVID19, epidemiologist Dr. Mike Ryan said while many island states have managed to keep their COVID19 numbers low, they must be careful about how they go about maximizing tourism.

He said individual governments must look at their situations, populations, local disease incidences and decide how they are going to address travel to their countries.

He warned that lifting restrictions too soon could have catastrophic consequences.

Dr. Ryan noted that if covid is allowed to get out of control, then the economies of these tourism-dependent nations will ultimately be damaged.