284 Media is in receipt of several complaints from tourists who are still awaiting their covid-19 test results, in some instances six days after arriving in the British Virgin Islands.
One frustrated tourist wrote “please investigate the government’s failure to follow through with their level 2 roll out plan for receiving people into the island. I am a first time visitor to the Island. The duration of my visit is about 11 days. Today is the sixth day since my arrival and in quarantine. I am still waiting on the results for day 1 and day 4 results. I have called the relevant agencies. They are either rude or not answering the phone. This is not my experience alone. Others are experiencing similar difficulties.”
Other persons shared that they are yet to receive results of the test administered upon arrival, 4-5 days after entering the territory.
Our 284 Media reporter took the opportunity to reach out to Minister of Health, Honorable Carvin Malone today December 23rd, to question the reasoning behind delays and what is being done to speed up the process. However, no response has been given on matters relating to Covid-19 since December 8th, 2020.
Among the brewing concerns prior to the grand reopening on December 1st was health preparedness and capacity.
The Government of the Virgin Islands has spent in excess of $15 million to procure products, cover training and retrofit the testing and isolation units for covid-19 cases and possible surges.
Additionally, the United Kingdom has assisted with testing materials. However, the populace is yet to be updated on the current testing capacity and how local authorities having been coping with the influx of tourists and residents.
In a December 7th address, Honorable Malone highlighted some technical challenges and Government’s effort to repurpose staff to speed up the turnaround process for testing.
Honorable Malone said “we have some challenges in terms of gathering all the data because the automation part of it will come. But we are growing and we are adding the facilities necessary to be able to get the automatic responses, number one, from the entry protocol, the automatic advisory as to whether or not you have tested negative/positive so that would know exactly what to do. So we would lessen that time that people are now experiencing.”
“It is an open secret that we must go to where you take the test at 11 o’clock on the fourth day and get it by 11 the next day. But we have some areas that we are sorting out as we speak. Premier spoke of being able to increase the staff. We trained about six persons today (December 7) to assist with different areas. We were able to transition a number of people from different departments who were enthusiastic about this and making sure that for the love of country, they would be able to lend their support where it is needed,” Malone added.
As of December 17th, 2020, the epidemiological summary indicated that the BVI has a total of 11 active COVID-19 cases, with 10,483 samples collected from 10,469 persons and tested at the Dr. D. Orlando Smith Hospital Laboratory. Of that toll total 86 persons have tested positive for COVID-19; 74 recoveries; 11 active and 1 death.
The 11 active cases of COVID-19 have been discovered by persons who recently travelled into the Territory and completed testing on entry (day 0) or on day 4. Of the active cases, two (2) are returning residents and nine (9) are tourists or non-residents. All persons were deemed non symptomatic and are safe and secured in quarantine until they have completed the re-tested protocol yielding negative results to be considered recovered.