BVI News

Cabinet relaxes COVID-19 protocols

Health Minister Carvin Malone

Cabinet has decided to relax some of the territory’s COVID-19 protocols as a result of the declining number of cases recorded in the territory.

Announcing the decisions last night, the Minister of Health Carvin Malone said Cabinet made several amendments to the current protocols which include gathering sizes as well as quarantine period.

“Cabinet decided that the current crowd list of 100 people be removed and would be limited for one person to every nine square feet. This means unlimited numbers but limited to one per nine square feet in each establishment. Cabinet has decided that organisers of large events in excess of 300 persons should notify the Environmental Health Authority of the date, time and location of the events,” Malone announced.

“Cabinet has decided that the quarantine period of unvaccinated persons entering the territory will be moved from seven days to five days. These changes will come into force when gazetted and should expire on the 31st of March 2022,” the Health Minister added.

He said, in the interim, the protocols which remain are the requirement for masks, the requirement to wash hands and sanitise, as well as the requirements to exercise proper hygiene, maintain a social distance of at least three feet, and all the common-sense approaches that have kept the territory safe in the past two years.

Malone also encouraged residents to continue with the vaccination uptake including the booster shots.

“To date, we have 17,459 persons that are deemed fully vaccinated which is a rate of 58.2 per cent. We also have a booster that was recently made available, and we have 3,652 persons who have taken advantage of this opportunity. This represents 12.2 per cent. We are concerned that the vaccination rate for boosters is not as robust as it could be,” he said.

This month marks two years since COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic. Since then, the lab at the Dr D Orlando Smith Hospital has analysed more than 100,000 samples. From this, the health minister said, there were 6,091 cases with 6,006 recoveries. There have been 62 deaths of persons who were deemed positive with COVID-19 during this period.

Less than two dozen active cases remain.

“We are down from the heights of 1,300 down to where there are active cases if 23. One person is hospitalised at this time,” Malone said.

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14 Comments

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  1. Money rule says:

    Every time I try to follow the SCIENCE it always leads me back to the money

    Like 31
    Dislike 1
  2. Look at a sell out! says:

    Cant wait for my time when I meet you in the street!

    I will tell you exactly what I think of you, and all the other Pharma whores in BVI Government.

    Like 20
    Dislike 1
  3. Too late says:

    Drop the quarantine altogether. If they test negative, let them in, vaccine or not. Quarantine the SICK, not the healthy. Covid is over, it’s now WWIII to keep your attention. Get with it BVI.

    Like 36
  4. truth says:

    Please get the banks back to normal. This thing with limiting people in the bank and allowing you to perform 1 transaction is rediculous. It is very frustrating, it takes up a day to do banking.

    Like 24
    • Secret Bear says:

      Spring/summer will be here before you know it and we’ll have elderly people passing out in the hot sun again. Not acceptable!

  5. St. Martin says:

    Vaccinated persons can now enter St. Martin without having to take a test. BVI please follow suit so I can take my weekend getaways in peace.

    Like 21
    Dislike 6
  6. Missing says:

    Protocols entering and leaving the Vi???????????(

    Like 2
    Dislike 1
  7. Missing says:

    Protocols entering and leaving the Vi???????????

  8. SMH#3 says:

    PURE POPPY SHOW STORY.

    Like 11
    Dislike 1
  9. Jah Know says:

    The world news story changed, the heads ain’t giving anymore covid instructions so they relaxing it now before they take it all off together. The world leaders now making money off this war, the covid thing played out and they done made their goal.

    Like 14
    • Informed about vax says:

      But the insurance companies are left holding the bag with vaccine adverse reaction and death claims. They’ll be looking for government bailouts to keep their mouths shut. The actuaries just do the math, they don’t care about the [political] science.

      Like 6
      Dislike 2
  10. Uhhhhh says:

    Jack wagon govt At the height of Covid it was 4 day quarantine. You tested on arrival, tested day 4.

  11. Secret Bear says:

    They call this a “relaxation?” This is a joke and makes no difference to anyone. It’s time to end this foolishness and drop all restrictions like most countries have done already.

    Like 10
  12. News Flash says:

    Covid is out / WW3 is in

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