Visitors will have to test twice and quarantine for ‘short period’
When the territory reopens for tourism starting December 1, visitors will only be required to quarantine for a ‘short period’.
In an interview on ZBVI radio this week, Premier Andrew Fahie said visitors will, however, have to undergo at least two COVID-19 tests.
“You would have had to produce a test before [travelling to the BVI] and that would be fed into IOTA, which is the system that you book. So you need to produce for the system and it will be verified by whichever health institution you took it, to ensure that it’s authentic,” the Premier explained.
He continued: “Then, and only then, will it allow you to book a ticket to come to the BVI. So that’s a starting point. But there is more to it and that will be revealed to the public within the next couple days to a week’s time.”
A second test after arrival
Providing that pre-travel tests are confirmed negative and visitors land in the BVI, Premier Fahie said visitors will be re-tested by local health officials before undergoing “a short quarantine period”.
Fahie, who is also Tourism Minister, did not specify the length of that quarantine period during his radio interview. But he reportedly told businesses during Tuesday’s tourism stakeholders meeting that the period will be four days; subject to Cabinet approval.
The purpose of quarantining is to wait out COVID-19’s incubation period, which is the time between ‘exposure to the virus’ and ‘symptom onset’. According to the World Health Organization, the incubation period of COVID-19 is, “on average, five to six days but can be as long as 14 days”.
Cabinet to approve protocols in a few days
Meanwhile, Premier Fahie said government’s proposed tourism protocols will be brought for Cabinet-approval on Friday or next Monday.
“I do not want to go into details of those until we fine-tune all of them with [Public] Health and pass it,” he stated.
The Premier, in the meantime, said government will be using technology to assist persons who want to visit the BVI come December.
He said this technology will be in the form of a mobile application; more commonly known as an app.
“Once you download that app, there is a lot of areas that we will be coming to launch,” Fahie stated.
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No tourism for the 2020/21 season then. Good job they trained all those new police officers because crime is going to go through the roof.
Your “premier” just killed tourism. Best of luck to all who are affected, financially and otherwise.
Actually Covid did that EVERYWHERE. Face Reality.
temporarily yes, but other places are coming back.
All this for a test that does not even test for SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19)…
he just said he doesn’t want to go into it, but has already told large resorts/hotsls the plans.
I am going to find work no as my restaurant will stay closed 9 months without a cent means im broke.
… the man gone loco …
The Foy is trying to beat down the people of the BVI until they have nothing. He wants to bring the Chinese in and become the d****tor of a puppet Chinese state. The people of the BVI watch out. This man is the d***l and you are all going to pay the price. This is all repayment for the evil the Belongers dish out on a daily basis.
How the outbreak happened
Fourteen members of the family featured in the report, including the 13-year-old, shared the same house for eight to 25 days. They did not wear masks or social distance, and all but two became infected.
The girl who was the source of the outbreak is believed to have been exposed during a large outbreak in June and sought out testing before the family vacation as a result. Four days after her exposure, she took a rapid antigen test while she was asymptomatic, and it came back negative. She started to experience symptoms (mainly nasal congestion) the same day that she, her parents and two brothers left for the family gathering.
Of the 12 family members, in total, who caught COVID-19, one was hospitalized and another visited an emergency department for treatment for respiratory symptoms. Both recovered.
“The findings in this report highlight the need for those potentially exposed to COVID-19 to self-quarantine for 14 days after exposure or after interstate travel when mandated by state, territorial, tribal or local authorities,” the CDC said in a statement to TODAY. “Social distancing, mask use, and hand hygiene reduce transmission in group settings and might have prevented this outbreak had they been used.”
Thats a source deep inside pubic health
Why this inexperience VIP, think they know it all government and a few incompetent Doctors, feel the need to develop a plan on their own …They Just need to look around the region and learn, See whats going on..Listen to the people who been doing this for yrs..You all salary sure, so to hell with the rest of us from East End to West End to Jost Van Dyke to Anegada to Virgin Gorda, Survive how u can
The flip side of this is you can advertise your vacation as extremely safe and covid free.
What do you think would happen if there was a reputation of rampant covid, no safety measures for reopening?
It would mean no tourist or only the kind that dont care about their safety or ours.
Lots of luck with all of this. No tourist is going to come for a 7 day vacation and undergo all of this.
Check with the rest of the Caribbean and other counterparts, this means for a 7 day vacation someone needs at least a 14 days ticket u all sound so chupid
So how does this work for cruiseship passengers the bread and butter of the BVI how does this work for the persons arriving via yachts you all are just going to kill the economy!
Headless nail
Cruise ship passengers are not the bread and butter of the BVI the banking and corporate financial industry are. The tourism Industry is the largest local employer but is a lot smaller revenue earner for the BVI than the ‘silent’ banking industry.
The cruise ship portion of the greater tourist industry has a massive footprint and impact on the local infrastructure yet very few local people actually benefit in any meaningful way from the presence of the thousands of cruise ship tourists. Spending per guest is very low compared to even a daily rate of a non cruise ship tourist and as always that minimal spending per guest is funneled to a very few well placed people.
If you consider a contagion to be a matter of maths and the government wanted to keep the local people safe the cruise ship industry would be banned long term. Allowing tens of thousands of people ashore per season for an average spend of less than $10 per person makes no sense numerically, some of those people will be sick and infect local people.
Meanwhile industries like the yacht charter industry where the BVI lead the world and who guests average spend is in the $100’s a day spread throughout the territory is getting regulated out of existence.
The tourist sector is the biggest employer by far and circulates nearly 80% of the money in the economy. Now the FS give more money to the Government but not by much .
every season the cruise ships come in we get sick. Thats the plain truth. Down to the day cares offices and schools.
Heaven forbid a more deadly disease comes around and people still kicking up about measures to protect tourist & residents.
What tourist wants to travel to a place filled with Covid-19 if we put no measures in place.
People watching the short term money and want to create a situation that affects their long term money.
Short quarantine period (4 days). Because according to the World Health Organization, the incubation period of COVID-19 is, “on average, five to six days but can be as long as 14 days”
GREAT. MATH = So they can incubate and be ready for spread after they wreck the first 4 days of their vacation.
What has changed since May??? We got the same hospitals and health care. Why did we quarantine for all those months??
You going to kill us all. You as d**b as Trump on this one!
being in quarantine for 4 days for an average 7 day vacation is ridiculous. If you don’t want to open just don’t open and let the economy and government crash. you will still have covid and you can add an economic depression to the mix. You can’t hide from Corona but you certainly are making it difficult to live with it.
Why. Only in the bvi.
Check other developed countrys are usin a electronic machine at the port of entry. And do a quick test in 5 minutes you get the results and than you could go. So try to do a diferent things because i dont think it going work. Tourist come to vacation. No to get stress. With this.
It have many others country big and nice. That they dont have this requirement. To enter the country.
So still have enough time to get a next decision about this. I dont think is the right one.
But ask i imagine they will channge next fee weeks,just wait and see.
Good luck. With this plan
“Check other developed countrys”.
Setting aside your awful English, what makes you think we are a developed country?
Do not trust God can help the BVI’s against this Idioti 🙂
And the devil whispered in their ear, “Trust in God he won’t let anything bad happen. Did you meet my daughters Irma and Maria?”
Wear a tracker. I wondered how long it would be before some kind of badge had to be worn by non-belongers. Tourists first, expats next? Does anyone remember what happened to the Jews in Nazi Germany? https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/jewish-badge-during-the-nazi-era
As well as being a financially failed state, the BVI has become a fascist state.
Yuh MODDA
Is that your best contribution to issue that is of grave concern?
@WLM, how is this remotely close to fascism or Nazi Germany ? Well congrats you found some idiots to like your comment. I’m sure you’re life is so much more meaningful.
Tourists have a choice and it will not be here. BVI can kiss goodbye to its tourism sector. All expats engaged in that sector or impacted by it may as well leave now.
There is no visitor that is going to forfeit more than half of their week’s vacation in quarantine. We simply won’t get any tourists for the upcoming season. Need to rethink that plan urgently!
4 days of quarantine for a 7 day visit. Is this i**ot out of his mind? This is the end of tourism in the BVI. Multiple Covid tests? At what BVI Cost? Monitoring bracelet? At what cost? Does anyone believe tourists are coming under these conditions. People charter a boat and can’t get off for 4 days? People rent a Villa and can’t leave for food or beaches for more than half their stay. He’s a blithering i**ot. Goodbye BVI. You are walking dead.
The only way we can encourage tourists is by presenting ourselves as a safe haven. We must advertise that we have no cases, test all tourists on arrival and give them the results in 24 hours. A “Safe haven behind safe walls “ might work.
But double testing, four days quarantine, staff in hazmat suits and electronic armbands to track visitors all of which are proposed is going to attract no one.
Combine that with the airport only entry and you can kiss the tourists goodbye for a year.
And the dumb stupidity of this plus the hurricane aftermath could mean we can kiss them goodbye for a lot longer.
No one is going to staff up a hotel ready to open ,with all the cost that implies , under these conditions.
Truly clueless.
Holy Effin Hell…
So what tourist is going to quarantine for 4 days???????? Are you kidding me? Dear Leader jst scared off any tourism for the season, this year and the next. OMFG!!!!
Hello USVI.
Carry on
What tourists coming to quarantine IN THE BVI. THIS DONT MAKE ONE DROP OF SENSE. AND THEN COMING THROUGH THE AIRPORT WHERE IT IS EXPENSIVE AS HELL!! ANDERW THERE GOES YOUR SECOND TERM IF YOU EVEN FINISHED THE FIRST ONE
You can’t make that up, test before you can book, that is weeks and month before arrival and has no value on travel date. OOOps you are correct no tourist season for the BVI for 2020/2021 No idea how people are going to eat.
sound like trump need to pay the BVI a courtesy call. Sounds like brogard don’t have a plan as yet
Who the heck is going to come to quarantine? Our premier is out of his mind!
Dear Andy Foy,
I want to ask if you ever attended a commercial post in a commercial environment. But your plans clearly show your lack of commercial insight.
What an absolutely ridiculous plan. How can we move on with this idiotic level of red tape? Do you have something to gain from a failing BVI? Because you seem to be intentionally frustrating the process of this place moving forward.
You should have consulted the industry months ago. Now it’s all too late. What a failure of a premier you are.
It’s time to protest and demand Foi to go.
He is totally inco*****nt.
Trump2020, anju is the fraud
Voting has consequences. The VIP had no plans for the country when they were campaigning. It was just a big party every night in conjunction with lies and half truths. We elected a team mostly with people who have no experience in business or running anything. How do we expect them now to function well and present plans to us when they won the government without showing us any plans for the country? Think about it.
People go protest in the street, don’t be afraid of saying what you think
Ignorance ignorance ignorance!!! Point blank. Educated people without sense.
when ah say he Ain ready …I mean he Ain ready!!!!
It don’t have any deadly virus by the name of Corona.Andrew is one who t*** Bill Gates money,simple.
BVI relies 100% on international tourism. Did you ever ask insights and advise from BVITB international partners (tour-operators, cruise compagnies, travel agencies, airlines, media, reps…) who know better than anyone of us about outbound markets in the Americas/PuertoRico, UK and Europe…before taking such a decision ? I guess they would have answered you this will not work to convince international visitors to pay a visit to us here in the BVI this next months. Did you also benchmark our neighbors policies and marketing campaigns in international markets?
Ya’ll sound like a bunch of kids throwing tantrums. All of sudden “ let’s do that , let’s do this.” Lmao . Grow up people. Tourist will come. There are tourist who so badly love the BVI that they will do whatever to visit. Stop acting like kids who didn’t get their way.
No tourists won’t come under ridiculous requirements when these are not required other places. I am a stake holder and believe me I wouldn’t want to come if I had to waste half my trip locked away.
I don’t even understand the system of booking a plane ticket. You need to book in advance. If you book in advance what is the point of testing at that point? It makes no sense. Why not require testing 72 hours prior to arrival and then randomly test with rapid test at point of entry. Also entry only by airport is a no go. There are no direct flights. You need to connect in San Juan or elsewhere.
If I already had a ticket to travel through St Thomas I would just stop there and enjoy my trip rather than go through all these hoops.
Kill the economy to present a disease with a 99.5% survival rate.
This plan is a joke and if this is a trial balloon you are scaring off more tourists than you’re attracting by saying we are open on 12/1.
To Lmao,
You are mistaken. Yes, we do love the BVI. No, we don’t love it so much that we’ll go through hell, added expense, and major inconvenience to get there. Reminds me of a woman I once knew. I was in love, but dropped her like a hot potato when her expectations became so high that I couldn’t keep up. We have other options.
SAY IT LOUDER PLEASE
That’s how you saw our relationship? You PIG!
Did we mean so little to you that me asking for an occasional meal out and more bedroom fun dressed as a Pokemon characture was expecting too much?
To Tourist’s Ex
Unfair! How many times did I offer to buy you a burrito at the gas station? And Pokemon? Really? Frightening!
I know my family won’t come. After 15 years in the BVI we gave up last year when the toxic smoke kept coming our way. We were ready to give BVI a try again this year. But no, only airport open, tests, quarantine,… not attractive. We’ll spend another nice season in St Maarten, Antigua,…
Well, we’ve just cancelled actually. 4 days quarantine out of a week is insane.
No cruise ships can plan for the BVI’s this year, they need months to plan and sell their voyages and that is not possible on a short notice. Do the government and do the people living in the BVI’s really understand how serious these decisions the government now take is?
The effect of these decisions will not only be limited to 2020-2021, but will be in effect for many years to come. No companies will risk planning for the BVI’s due to the uncertainty on whatever decisions this government might make. Nobody can operate with uncertainty too long. Also there is many other nice islands in Caribbean and in the world that do whatever they can to bring tourists and business in. Cooperation with the world around is important and this is something this government do not understand.
Business and private persons in the BVI’s will run completely out of money. The business that are able to escape to other island will. People will not have money to pay for their needs for the day. There will be hunger. The crime rate will turn sky high, so no one is safe.
Tortola is today a garbage dumb, but as there will be no money to take away the daily garbage it will be really bad. Buildings and infrastructure will collapse. No official services will be operating due to no money. Even the police and border control will suffer. Maybe just break down. Water and electricity might be only for a few. Schools will close and people will make rafts and try to escape to safety away from hunger.
All the above is as little radical, but the BVI’s are for sure heading that direction.
Cruise companies have planned and sold these voyages long before Covid 19. Passengers are now waiting whether the cruise will happen and whether there are changes to the itinerary. So sadly I think the Government will have no problem letting them come in, just giving the Visitors who actually spend any money on island a hard time and have them go to other islands. I pray that the Government rethinks these procedures but a lot of people might have already booked elsewhere.
Do yall think ppl really like taking those covid test. So i have to do a mandatory one 5 day before n still upon n when i done gone bout my business i gotta do another one… The bvi gonna stay right there. Yall gonna run ppl away tourists only come to the cribbean island for 5 days.
Presently any local or Belonger re entering the BVI has to quarantine for two weeks at a cost of $2500 In a hotel or $3700 in their own house !! Is that going to change please. ? Ask for a Covid test ( 72 hour or less) and have them quarantine for 4 days and then re take the test. Please please adjust this as people re entering can’t afford to come home right now. Yet tourists from anywhere in the world can ??? UNFAIR and UNJUST !! Fix this please ASAP
There is no cost to quarantine in a hotel . The govt even pays for your food. And at least one of the hotels is pretty nice.
Which hotel are you referring to?
I suspect you have very low standards if you think any of the hotels named are acceptable.
There are travelers with tickets already going in to STT. Now what? –this is stupid.
We’re almost 8 months into this crisis and it’s clear the Government has done little to prepare itself for the eventual re-opening of its tourism sector. It’s clear that COVID is a public health threat, but what about the families that have been existing on next to nothing for much of the last year? Despite Hon Premier’s favorite catch phrase “covid19 isnt playing around with us, so we aren’t playing with covid19”, it seems that alot of playing around has been occurring when it comes to the economy and individual livelihoods.
The fact that December 1st was announced with no information on entry requirements showed the level of ineptitude we are dealing with. The BVI’s tourism product is being dealt a death blow by our own government and yet people are pretending that everything is okay. What is it going to take in order to get everyone to stand up to what is going on now? People have bills to pay and families to feed. Everyone upset by what is going on needs to speak up and demand more from the government. Living in fear of reprisal for speaking up does not seem to have worked thus far.
4 days is a very long time, but can be made less of the negative if there is a designated tourist orient area where quarantine doesn’t feel like quarantine. Prospect reef would have been great if it was available but you get the idea. A four day holding area for new arrivals and an area for those who have been tested positive but do not require medical treatment but maybe able to transmit.
that makes no sense. Why would anyone submit to this? Where do the go for the remaining 3 days of their 7 day stay? Will not help business like villas, hotels, etc.
Darn what an idiotic plan. Andrew you really really getting us fed up… I think is time to March and ask for your immediate resignation!! Please resign what are you doing? why are you hurting the people so bad.. simply resign people we need to stand up and ask this man to resign!!
This is ridiculous. Looks like we will just go to St. Thomas in future for our vacations.
The VIP did everything under the sun to win including all the lies and nasty whatsapp messages. Now look what has befallen them? The cannot govern this country effectively at this time because they don’t have the skills.
you get the government you deserve
Are we able to vote to impeach the current administration and elect new leadership?
im sure someone covered this but let me be clear NO ONE AND I MEAN NO ONE BOOKS A HOLIDAY FOR THE BVI WITHIN 5 DAYS.
HE IS SAYING YOU CANNOT BOOK A TICKET TO THE BVI UNLESS YOU HAVE A VALID COVID-19 RESULT.
This is a joke wtf is he taking because if he thinks people will spend $10,000 on a villa or a boat then have to wait till 4 or 5 days out before being able to book a flight he is delusional and I cannot wait for my industry meeting with him and the TB as i will tell himto his face.
OMG, seriously how does getting a covid test months ahead of your trip have any relevance at all? Last time I checked people book tickets months ahead. Furthermore how does one quarantine for 4 days on a 7-10 trip!
I have chartered in the BVIs for over a decade but if this government doesn’t think thru their protocols, tourist will go to the USVI or other Islands which are making the process easier for their charter visitors.
Sad to not be able to return to this beautiful place but right now the government may as well be saying don’t come….
exactly–This message is don’t come and don’t plan to come.
We must vote! VIP clearly does not have a plan. Andrew and his team has watered down the system, just like how Trump has made a mockery of the United States. Andrew is a di****or. VIP must go!
The US is open for business – BVI is not. Stop pretending VIP just say your closed. I will surrender my property to the bank–because this is where this is headed.
I don’t want to know how many properties will not be able to pay their mortgages any longer and will be foreclosed by the Bank. All our years of working and saving down the drain. No Tourism and the economy will collapse. Is there no common sense anywhere in this Government?
and these may be the very people to step in and buy these properties for little or nothing.
trump is doing fine. Stop comparing the BVI with the USA
It speaks volumes to the government’s priorities on the tourism industry that the portfolio was given as a “junior” post in the ministry and worse to someone with virtually no experience. An essay contest won’t fix this mess.
Well, BVI is behind the 8th ball and it looks like a permanent proposition with Andrew Fahie. I am beginning to wonder if the Premier really want to revive the economy. To me it does not look so. Who will leave their country to come to BVI for a week vacation and go in quarantine for 4 days? No one. Andrew agenda is not for the people.
Why dont you get the ppl involved to hear each person views
Im so disappointed in you Andrew !
Like you dont follow news through out the carribean wow!
This like surgery date then you have your surgical team ready then you remove the equipments /tools for the proceedure
The Honorable Mr. Andrew Fahie thinks he not only knows it all but he knows it better then you and me Just like Mr. Trump. The difference is he is selling all of us down the drain with us having no election around the corner to help us. How could this government waste all this time fighting the Governor and talking Independence instead of looking out for economic recovery and fast track covid19 testing for arrivals. I tried to give him a chance but that is just unacceptable.
1/ Open Road Town Port for One Trip a day in the morning to accomodate late arrival coming through St. Thomas…..2/ Reduce the 4 days quarantine to atlease 2, have your Lab organized and working shift to get the test and results done.. If im a traveler I will not be going to a destination for my vacation to spend 4 days lock down….3/ Charge a small fee of $15.00 for arrival test to help defray medical cost…..4/ have all quarantine location advertise online so the visitors can chose any of their choice and hsve it reserved…5/ have all quarantine locations responsible for their own security…
The economy will not be revived when every body is allowed to enter willy nilly. You all are a set of selfish people the only thing you all can dee is the good almighty dollar. Well some of us do not mind being broke and live a day longer. You people acting as if you are immune to coved. The dead cannot spend money. Set of greedy people. Every other place in the world is trying to be careful but because the VI is percieved to be everybody’s financial cow it is OK to open the place and let in who so ever will. The tourist I am sure will like to know that there are protocols in place to keep them safe. You people always trying to frighten the Government with your votes. Rememberdead man cannot vote.
Honourable Fahie, please do not listen to these greedy imbeciles because what they are bloging do not make sense. When we let our guard down and you have a set of sick and dead people in the Virgin Islands no Tourist is going to want to come any way. A Covid free tourist will not want to visit if he or she know that others are allowed in without going through the proper protocol. Only some of the Covid infected ones will come knowing that there are no protocols. I said some because the unselfish ones will mot want to expose others if they are ill. Further, one can test negative today and tomorrow that same person can test pisitive. You are on point Sir listen to the Health Officials not the money mongers.
Kill tourism, financial services will follow suit, pushing marijuana.
The c****pt d**g d***ing di****or has destroyed the BVI!
Good luck, run, don’t walk to a country that has h**f a brain running it.
To Lmao,
You are mistaken. Yes, we do love the BVI. No, we don’t love it so much that we’ll go through hell, added expense, and major inconvenience to get there. Reminds me of a woman I once knew. I was in love, but dropped her like a hot potato when her expectations became so high that I couldn’t keep up. We have other options.
So which minister owns the hotel where the tourists will spend their “few days” quarantine? Come one, confess.
As a many time tourist and VG property owner there is no way We will return and have to quarantine for 4 days.
Rapid testing is available and should be the focus of the government’s reopening efforts.
A test done 1-2 months or more in advance of travel is worthless. Tests are a snapshot of a moment in time. You can be negative today and positive tomorrow.
Good luck we won’t be scheduling our return anytime soon as long as this is the policy.
Mt Premier. Rethink this plan. Take a second look at it… When you are doing so see yourself as a traveler thinking of voming to the The BVI. And all what you have to go through. See if you would really want to come…
I really do not understand why the BVI is making things so complicated. Other Caribbean islands have reopened and are doing really well. Most Caribbean islands require a negative test 24 hours upon arrival and you receive a rapid test at the airport. Depending on where your coming from for example if your coming from countries or islands with high numbers you a required to take another test on island. CARICOM even has a travel bubble which is working. The BVI needs to be safe but realistic as well. Tourist coming from islands and countries that based on their community spread or numbers of active cases should be treated differently from people coming from placed with 0 cases or a few imported cased which was found upon attempting to enter ( at the airports) entry requirements should be different. That’s my suggestion.
Well Mr. Priemere I am writing as a group member containing 16 boat owners who consider Nanny Cay their home for 6 to 8 months of the year. Sir, we as a group have been within your territory through the thick and thin (including Irma) for the past decade. We have poured countless dollars into your economy and stayed many months helping and rebuilding vessels and communities after Irma of 2017. Your quoted comments regarding the upcoming opening of the territory has us, as a group entity, very concerned. We feel that we should be able to self isolate within our own vessels for the 4 day period. We also feel that the regulations regarding air travel (stated via IOTA and I believe it should be IATA) is confusing at best. Do you Sir understand what exactly IATA is and its’ mandate of service?
Mr. Priemere, after reading your reported plan, we as a group of 16 vessels will be looking for a new home away from home. We have loved our time at Nanny Cay and in the territory but if this is the way you and your government have decided to treat your bread and butter; then we will find someone other Island to spread our butter. If other boat owners who reside at Nanny Cay decide the same, where will that establishment end up; not to mention the many independent businesses within Nanny Cay we all support. Please Sir, we do not want to leave but you are forcing us out with your forceful reopening ways. It is to the point now where, in order to get access to our vessels, we have to pay others to bring our vessels to USVI or Puerto Rico because those territories are making our travel and entry to the territory uncomplicated and we can make our travel arrangements without hesitation and guess work….guess that is where we will be staying.
We will be pulling out charter boat out of Roadtown, where we employ people.
What on earth does
“Once you download that app, there is a lot of areas that we will be coming to launch” mean?
What language is that?
The plan to reopen the BVI to tourist needs a rework to say the least.
Tourists who rent villas or charter yachts are the exact type of low risk visitor you need to encourage. Renting a villa or yacht for a week is safely sheltering by the very nature of the activity. A family sitting on the beach, snorkeling or using the pool at their villa is a very low risk activity to the BVI general population. Compare this to high risk activities such as crowded casinos, concerts or indoor bars where the risk of transmission is high by the nature of the activity. The BVI is blessed with the ability to offer families a variety of safe vacation environments.
It is important to listen to the experts and follow the science. This is the latest from the CDC regarding COVID fatalities: The US Center for Disease Control (CDC) has released an update to their research on the fatality rate associated with COVID-19. The CDC first posted this data on May 20, 2020, with the understanding that the parameter values would be updated and augmented over time. This update, dated September 10th, is based on data received by CDC through August 8, 2020.
A quick summary of COVID-19 survival rates is shown below. The summary is based on the CDC table provided at the end of this report.
CDC COVID-19 Survival Rates
Age 0-19 — 99.997%
Age 20-49 — 99.98%
Age 50-69 — 99.5%
Age 70+ — 94.6%
In the over age 70+ group the death rate is higher for people with existing serious comorbidities and even higher for those living in nursing home facilities near the end of their natural lives.
The best course of action for the BVI is to simply ask visitors to follow the recommended COVID protocols and practice social distancing, wear a mask when in public places and wash your hands. Elderly BVI residents with existing comorbidities should avoid spending time with tourists. The fatality risk for the rest of the population is extremely low.
What is in the current BVI Love reopening plan is unworkable and likely to fail.
Finally have separate sensible protocols for villas without staff, villas with staff, bareboat charters, crewed charters, hotels and resorts.
One size does not fit all.
Firstly, the government is absolutely shambolic in that it has taken this long to come up with any sort of plan for borders to re-open.
Secondly, the only way to protect the local population and health system, AND the economy through letting tourists back here, is through heightened, rapid testing.
This will come with restrictions:
Testing before you come
Short delays upon entry whilst a test sample is taken
Restricted movements until sufficient time after entry and testing has elapsed
Potentially, further testing required during your stay
Testing on exit (to maximise chances of finding out if someone with Covid-19 has just left the territory) to enable a form of ‘track and trace’.
This testing regime will inevitably put some people off coming to BVI. If only EIS is open for entry, that will further put some people off coming given the torturous access route.
The tourists on cruise ships should not be allowed ashore.
However, similar testing and quarantining regimes are being used elsewhere in other Caribbean states with success, so although some people will be put off, many will not be. And if this means catering more to the high end of the market, and not allowing day-trippers from USVI to JVD, so be it. Something is better than nothing, and there is potential for quite a lot of something here if it is planned properly (I know, that is where the main flaw is…).
I own a large Charter boat in Tortola & pay good wages to the good people of the BVI. We stayed strong during Irma, kept our business there when it would have been easy to move it to VI or elsewhere. But now! No way! I can’t run a business under these conditions. No way are visitors going to put up with this nonsense.
I love the BVI and the people. But now, I am forced to leave which will put my beloved employees out of work. I feel terrible but have no choice.
Goodbye and best wishes.
I’ve been coming to BVI for 10 years spending about 60 days total each year over multiple trips enjoying the islands and living aboard my boat which is permanent at Nanny Cay. Had planned to come in December and booked plane tickets into St Thomas. I’ve now converted my trip to a stay in St Johns because I cannot absorb the 4-5 days of quarantining and testing to make a BVI trip work. My boat will stay on the hard and I will have to vacation elsewhere. If I feel this way, imagine how others feel who use a charter boat or stay in a resort villa. No way tourists will come.