Travellers coming to BVI more prepared to vaccinate than us here
Premier Andrew Fahie has indicated that persons visiting the BVI are more inclined to be vaccinated than those that are within the territory.
During a press conference hosted last Friday, the Premier announced several updates to the BVI’s entry protocols and urged the local populace to get into a state of readiness for the cruise tourists that will be coming.
“Most of who are coming into the territory are more prepared in terms of being vaccinated than we who they are coming to, so we have to make sure that we step up our game with being vaccinated,” Premier Fahie urged.
He suggested that those who could not take the vaccine should do what they can to improve their immune system.
He cautioned that while persons might be inclined towards natural cures or remedies that may counter the virus, these do not begin to work overnight.
The Premier also underscored a number of initiatives that cruise ships have taken to ensure their preparedness for any adverse COVID-19 outcomes – including adding ICU Units and improved medical facilities as well as reduced passenger capacities.
And while expressing some disappointment at the current vaccination rate of just over 50 percent locally, Premier Fahie said expectations were that the territory would be nearer to the 70 percent margin.
“We still have some ways to go to make sure that we take advantage of these economic opportunities,” he stated.
However, the Premier was optimistic in expressing confidence that Virgin Islanders would make the necessary adjustments to accommodate the expected stream of tourists coming to the territory within the next few days.
Opening up to tourists won’t bring the Mu variant
Meanwhile, the Premier disagreed that opening the BVI to cruise tourists is likely to bring the Mu variant to the territory, noting that the BVI was closed and still managed to have the variant.
The Premier said the BVI has no intention of becoming involved in lockdowns and reminded persons that COVID-19 was going nowhere.
“We have to live with [COVID-19] we have practised the protocols enough. It is time now to get in the game and start to put in place the things that we have practised,” Premier Fahie told residents.
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“ noting that the BVI was closed and still managed to have the variant.”
So much for “open for business”… Lies.
Sorry I’ll stay on my safe cruise ship rather than go ashore on an island with only a 50% vaccination rate for this virus. Maybe in a few years the vaccination rate will be 100% and it will be safe to go ashore in the BVI.
The vaccination rate will never be totally 100% in any country you travel to because there are many people who CANNOT medically take any vaccine. The most I see the BVI reaching is a mere 70% if that much, what needs to be enforced is proper sanitation rules for young and old.
We are in this thing together and should do our best to keep the infection rates as low as possible. An island of such small size with such limited medical facilities can be wiped out if it gets out of control.
If all cruise passengers are vaccinated why are they afraid to interact with the unvaccinated? Aren’t they supposedly protected by having the vaccine?
Utter nonesense. Why worry about the unvaccinated rate if you are vaccinated? It means therefore that the vaccination fails to work effectively. Do you know you can catch and spread the virus just like any unvaccinated person?
I see that you don’t have any common sense
I don’t get it. I came to the BVIs 2 months after Irma because I loved your island and wanted to spend my money there, even though there were countless other options. The fact that you are unwilling to help yourselves in this case is sad. The dark money from banking is drying up under the bright light of the media. Tourism is an essential industry. Not to nurture it with every available tool seems foolish.
OK, so what’s the vaccination rate in the country you hail from? Is is 70 – 100% NO!! So don’t expect the BVI to be held to a higher standard, just because it is considered a tourist destination.
Nineteen months on, do we still have just eight ventilators, or has our “advanced planning” procured a few more? I really don’t want to hear that something happens or becomes necessary, because we only have those eight! Our background of not planning for the simplest and most obvious is pretty stark, and the consequences pretty costly!
The number of ventilators is irrelevant on its own. BVI also needs to have the specialist medical personnel available to intubate, monitor and care for critically ill patients who are placed on a ventilator. Those skills are in short supply.
I never knew so many people outside the BVI read our news and had such strong opinions.
Why are we still pushing an ineffective vaccine? No only does it barely offer any protection against variants but once injected, the benefits immediately starts to wane. Efficacy is down to less than 30% after just 4 months! Technically everyone vaccinated in January are no better off than unvaccinated people unless they had a booster or got infected. On top of that, animals have tested positive for this COVID virus and its variants. There are animal resoviors all over the world. Zero covid is a fantasy. We should be shifting our focus to treatment and overall health. We should be learning to live with COVID.
People have made their choices. Let them be. Those who are unvax will get it when they change their mind.
Thats the same for every where in the caribbean, natives are stubborn and hold on to fake news….No wonder Jim Jones Poison off so many of them, because we caribbean people see good as bad and bad as good…Take the daxxmn vaccine, almost 6 billion people world wide done take the vaccine and less than 6 thousand die or had adverse effects…What more evidence we need…Take 6 thousand from 6 billion and see how much healthy protected people remained..
If your mama or another loved one was in the 6,000 who died you would have a different opinion. At the onset of this dilemma it was said that taking or not taking the vaccine was a personal choice. How quickly that changed.
In exchange of a few dollars our leaders are willing to kill off many locals. The Love of money. I know that we need money but we can have lots of money and lots of heartache, let us be careful.
The sad part is that some of our leaders who are pushing this vaccine did not actually take the vaccine. I expect that shortly they will be saying that it is mandatory but they will have a fight on their hands.
Six billion people took the vaccine.
Six thousand people died or had adverse effects.
Many more than 6,000 have adverse effects, get your info together.
Stop passing on the lies that you know to be lies.
Remember ALL lives matter.
It’s just way too risky for cruise ship people to venture ashore to an island with almost 50% unvaccinated. If someone from the ship catches the virus from an unvaccinated taxi driver, waitress, shop person, beach attendant, etc. and brings it back to the ship then my holiday goes to hell for me and other people on the ship due to quarantine, virus symptoms, breathing difficulty and even death. The whole cruise could be terminated if too many cruise people become infected ashore on 1 island!
Drivers, and waitress have caught the virus from passengers and guests before so please stop the nonsense.