Reports of quarantine breaches might see fines increasing to $5K
Fines for breaching the BVI’s quarantine protocols may see a significant increase of up to $5,000, Health Minister Carvin Malone has announced.
Speaking at a media conference Monday night, Malone said considerations are being made for stiffer penalties because of reports of protocol breaches.
The Health Minister said he believes the increase of the fine from the maximum $1,000 — as stipulated in the COVID-19 Control and Suppression (Entry of Persons) Regulations, 2020 — would further act as a deterrence to persons who intend to purposely breach the protocols.
“I want to make some specific warnings about it. Persons who have been under the requirement to quarantine, they must adhere to this. We are getting reports of persons who have violated some of this before, we will find them and we will fine them because it is important that you adhere to all of the protocols,” the minister stated.
“We have fines ready to be handed out for those persons who are intent on breaking the law. We see in some places it is up to $5,000 and we might be able to move it from the $1,000 to the $5,000 to show that we’re serious because it’s best that we make the rough and tough decisions now so that we don’t have to go on the economic challenges if this was to spiral out of control,” he added.
Issues with tracking bracelets
Malone also said some of the GPS tracking bracelets have been experiencing technical problems.
“Most of them are working but we have some that have not been efficient as we would have liked them to be, so temporary measures are being taken,” he said.
“The bracelets are there for a specific purpose. We have measures that we have taken in terms of being able to more properly track and trace these persons who are intent on violating the particular measures that are being put in place and we must not allow this to happen,” he further stated.
Malone also said that another level of security is expected to be available for utilisation between today Tuesday and Wednesday.
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I saw someone took off a bracelet and left it by a bar in trellis bay beef island
As forecast the bracelets do not work and are being replaced by a phone app.
Yeah but the phones don’t work either – you can’t register them, so nobody is monitored, there are people ‘in quarantine’ roaming all over Tortola.
Govt made a mess of this reopening. They were not prepared, is anyone surprised?
You should’ve tested these protocols in Nov with a soft opening, mainly with returning residence and staff.
President trump said stop testing and the numbers wont go up.
Trump is a knob but in a way he
was right about that.
If you stop testing, the numbers won’t
go up because if you stop counting
anything, the numbers stay the same.
Of course meanwhile people will die but
That’s no what he said.
Too reactionary , every time .
Some ‘street men’ or teenagers would do a better Job than most politicians at being proactive and commanding control of this place .
You should be eager to lock up someone for breaching so you have real message and proof of concept . Ever since this s**t started , repeated banter about how BVI ppl especially have NO regard for your petty fines and rules- yet you give ppl chances , time and time again , to make you look soft .
National security issues are serious in other countries – grow a collective ‘pair’ and stop the pathetic begging for ppl to do the right thing- MAKE THEM!!!
You want to punish, arrest, jail would be quarantine breakers but your great justice department allows people arrested with illegal guns go unpunished. The BVI is a joke and the people are the punch line.
a hefty fine to help us with our economy and deportation
No fines will be issued. Like all the talk before about fine for not wearing mask etc. None will be enforced and no fines will be handed out. This just more of what we always get TALK.
Its just 4 days of quarantine why are they spoiling the good vibs for the rest of us.
Only a government can call the first day 0. Then test on the fourth day which is really the fifth day, and then take 30 plus hours to give you the result. Now into late day six or early day seven and call it a four day quarintine.
Reports that some people are still waiting for more than 48 hours for their 24 hous results. Who will charge them for late results.
People wanted to leave quarantine after 4 days where are the test results. Why are they not following up on persons in quarantine. Many persons were given a phone and put in their location upon ariving at tgeir quarantine lication and thats it. No checking back if tge persons are having any symptoms etc etc.
That’s all these re***ds understand, MONEY MONEY MONEY! Do something with f**king sense and we won’t have problems. The biggest problem is YOU ALL DO NOT LISTEN! We had over 8 months to put things in place and look at us scrambling!
The Government were offered so many trusted options for the tracking devices and outright refused them in favor of crony suggested options. Now look at them. They make BVI Airways look like a $2.00 issue.
phone dont work braclet dont work…what kind of crap is this??? so do they still charge for the tracker.
Got to the airport,and 4 phones for about 30 of us? Maybe they don,t know we coming in
It would be so eady if at least you answer the phone.But happy to be back.thanks
I have heard of many breaches of this quarantine . Stopping at store from airport going to quarantine, going to bar during quarantine and leaving the quarantine dock to shop for more supplies. We are not ready.
If people get their results in time they will not break quarantine rules.
As someone who recently landed over the weekend. The process at the airport was seamless, the testing immigration, customs and payment and receiving the tracking phone and transportation to my home only took about 45 minutes. Very efficient! Checked in on the provided android phone with the preinstalled gateway app as soon as I reached my house. But this is where the efficiency ended. My day 0 test results should have been provided on Sunday but I did figure since it was Sunday I wouldn’t get these till Monday. But by Tuesday still no results (figured no news was good news). I had to chase up my results by calling so many numbers and messaging many people to get my results which finally came through on Tuesday afternoon. I still haven’t received a request for a check in with my droid phone, no random video call or requests for health check nor anything on the gateway portal like I was told would happen. I’m assuming the geo fence that the app creates is monitoring the fact I have not left my house. Now waiting for my day 4 covid test appointment! I did receive an email at 11:30pm last night to be ready for 9:30am but I have also been told someone will call day of to schedule pickup, so it’s very unclear on the who what where and how of this next step. Will have to wait on this it looks like most likely til the moment of(I’m hoping different) but taking 2 days to get day 0 results makes me not have much faith if I test negative that I will be told by day 5 for release. I applaud the people who helped with the re-entry process because of website issues and everyone that made the airport process seamless, the driver who brought me home, the check in on the app. But the everything else, you can tell, was not ready because the rest of the process doesn’t work so far.
We not ready for opening point blank
We tested more people in one day in Colorado then all the people in my beloved BVI. Not hard to do. Rapid test take minutes More excessive testing 24 hrs. As for punishing people. I agree make it so large of fine it’s not worth it. Be safe be kind. BVI love will return. And wear a freaking mask in public ya all.