Island of Palau, Micronesia
New Entry Requirements
As of July 17, 2021
Effective Immediately, a commercial airline traveler needs only to present required documentation to the airline/airline representative for entry into the Republic of Palau.
- Pursuant to Republic of Palau Rules and Regulations for Isolation & Quarantine of Contagious Diseases and current Ministry of Health (MOH) Directives regarding COVID-19 measures, all international travelers entering the Republic of Palau are subject to the entry requirements listed below.
- All travelers must provide valid proof of full COVID-19 vaccination, with final dose received at least 14 days prior to arrival in Palau. Vaccine record must clearly show date(s) and number of dose(s) received as well as vaccine brand that is either US FDA or WHO-approved or authorized for COVID-19.
- Unvaccinated travelers under twelve (12) years of age may enter Palau and shall undergo the same requirements for vaccinated travelers.
- Requests for vaccination requirement exemptions for age group 12-17 will be considered on a case by case basis. Requests must be emailed to shunrang.chin@palauhealth.org. Requests must be received 5 days prior to arrival to Palau.
- All travelers are also required to provide valid negative PCR COVID-19 test results taken within three (3) days of departure to Palau or proof of COVID-19 recovery if previously infected with COVID-19. Children under three (3) years old are exempt from entry testing requirement.
- All travelers must provide valid address and contact information in Palau.
- All travelers must wear a face mask during their first five(5) days upon arrival and undergo mandatory COVID-19 testing on the fifth(5th) day after arrival.
- Violation of any stated requirement shall be subject to a criminal fine of $500.00, up to one (1) year imprisonment in accordance with 34 PNC § 104, and subject to further quarantine or isolation conditions.
- Visitors and non-residents must stay at a Pandemic Certified establishment during their first five(5) days upon arrival.
- Note: Flights and ships carrying unvaccinated travelers may be considered for entry on a case-by-case basis by the Ministry of Health.
Flying After Diving
Divers Alert Network (DAN)
Courtesy of DAN
In the past, guidelines for flying after diving were quite varied. For example, after a single no-stop dive, the U.S. Navy recommended a two-hour surface interval time (SIT), DAN recommended 12 hours SIT and the U.S. Air Force recommended 24 hours SIT. And in 1989, the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society (UHMS) recommended curtailing all diving within 24 hours of a flight and up to 48 hours following a decompression dive.
These guidelines proved to be a serious restriction for divers and dive operators, so in 1991, DAN Researchers developed a series of experiments designed to produce the data that was desperately needed to refine these guidelines.
The objective of these studies was to estimate the relationship between the preflight surface interval and decompression illness (DCI) incidence for a few dive series representative of recreational diving. A preflight surface interval was accepted or rejected within the study based upon the number of DCI incidents and total exposures. Acceptance and rejection rules were chosen to allow mild DCI but limit more serious DCI. The Duke Institutional Review Board of Duke Medical Center approved these rules.
With the data collected from these studies, DAN was able to develop more specific guidelines that still reduce the risk of decompression sickness as a result of flying after diving. DAN’s initial “Flying After Diving Trials” laid the foundation for the current flying-after-diving guidelines for recreational divers and then prompted the U.S. Navy to update their residual nitrogen-based flying-after-diving rules.