Exit strategy to drop EHAS

Where is the research from the St. Maarten Government for an exit strategy to drop the EHAS entry for the people of SXM and visitors to get tourism and the economy back to pre pandemic stage? If the CDC has dropped testing to enter the U.S.A. It should be enough research to remove the EHAS requirement for St. Maarten. Personally I will not return to SXM till they drop this Government overreaching movement of people to SXM.

I personally don't have a problem with the EHAS requirements. If it helps St Maartens protection against another covid outbreak so be it.

My feeling is that they will continue EHAS, so long as they can charge tourists $15 a head for it, for their insurance, which is pretty useless..

Carol, I think you read my mind. But I do hope they get rid of the test requirement. I don't really care about the "tourist tax." No different than being on a cruise.

Personally, I am totally in favor of everyone having to get a Covid shot, so if they want to require vaccination, I'm actually fine with that. But as I said, at this point, I think it's totally about the money. I could be wrong, but I doubt it.

Well we won't be getting 4 now almost 5 year old Baby Girl vaccinated any time soon until there is a more traditional vaccine available. Shee had the misery back in January 2020 when we did and had the sniffles for all of one whole day while we suffered from the misery for 2.5 weeks. Gotta love that little kid immune system.

I'm with you Carol. Keep the test requirement for unvaccinated. $15 is nothing. Cost of 2 drinks over the course of your trip. No big deal in my book.

100% Scuba!!!

We leave for SXM in 10 days and were pleased to find out we won't need to do the exit testing. We have no problem with the proof of vaccination for incoming passengers. SXM doesn't have the same public health infrastructure as the US so it makes sense for them to take at least a rudimentary step to try to limit the spread of covid. We're both considered health care workers so we're vaxxed, boosted, and careful.

Speaking of careful, we are one of the few, but so far, we have been masking in the grocery store here. Otherwise, pretty much anyplace else we have been has been outside. Too many reports of people getting sick here, or testing positive once they are home.

Carol when we were on island in March/April of this year we too noticed that masks were not prevalent. When we went to Carrefour for the first time we noticed that all the store staff and locals shopping were wearing masks but not so much the tourists shopping. We decided that if the locals and staff were being careful then we should too and wore a mask every time in a grocery store. Sort of a respectful thing to do.

Agreed. I will continue wearing a mask indoors, just as I do at home, and irrespective of now having Covid.

I just wonder how many people are walking around after self testing positive and still ignore self quarantining and masking. Good for taking your precautions to protect others.

Dunno. Hard to believe some would be that irresponsible.

Sad to say there are some ignorant and irresponsible people out there that still don't take this seriously.

Few tourists places have these entry conditions anymore. The $15 they charge is peanuts to what the island loses to other destinations that don’t have entry requirements. Not the money. Not about COVID anymore. It’s about control. Gov loves control and looking like they are doing something. Especially sxm government. It’s all about Control. IMO

They also love the $15. I’m reminded of one Minister who proposed raising it to $30 and keeping it in place forever.

Bahston--Yup. That's what it's all about. Money. For them..

A lot of to-do about very little, IMO. $15 (or even $30) pp is a drop in the bucket compared to what we spend on our vacations. I have no real issue if they keep it in place forever and they can call it whatever they want. It certainly won't affect whether we come to SXM.

We all use the infrastructure on the island when we visit. How else is the government supposed to raise the revenue to pay for that? Unlike virtually every other jurisdiction in North America and Europe, there are no sales or consumption taxes. Those typically start at 5% and go much higher. I'd much rather pay the $15 lump-sum up-front. Just my two cents!

Canuck--the problem is that we all know that the vast majority of that $15 is not going to support the government even. It's going in someone's pocket. And they use the cover story that it's for Covid insurance..

Hi Carol,

Whether it does or it doesn't is an issue for the islanders themselves to solve. Without getting political, it certainly isn't the only place in the world that suffers from cronyism or pure corruption. If I used that criteria to determine where we travel, the list would get much shorter.

In any case $15 times two, even in USD, whether it gets to where it should or not, will not make one iota of difference in our travel plans!

Good call. Both of our kids had it, one vaxxed one not. Why isn’t the gov recognizing natural antibodies after infection?
Another physician couple we know also had it go through their vaxxed family. One child has now developed type 1 diabetes. Another pt of mine, vaxxed, had rheumatoid conditions, now has scleroderma… 47 years old and he could bench 300 last year.

Today, you are better off getting Covid, in its dilute form, than a vaccine.




Absolutely. It’s a money grab, not about safety.
Just think about it. If you test negative, you are accepted entry. But if you have a cold or flu, come abroad! And if you have a false negative, it was just a waste of time and effort.

The only value of vaccination is that people PERCEIVE that they are somehow less likely to get disease. It makes some feel better. But it doesn’t stop the spread. It only reduces the risk of death BUT at the risk of introducing other lifelong side effects.

Here’s to going the ehas stuff is soon gone.

VERY good points!

The problem is you don’t know for sure that the vaccine caused these problems. It’s anecdotal evidence. For every person with an issue there are millions that have had no permanent side effects.

Probably time for Carol to shut this me down.

I agree since this has morphed into a Vax discussion.

Agreed.