Bad News on Monday

I have gotten into a habit of reading the BVI News and The Platinum BVI every couple days to see if there is any relaxation of the entry protocols. Well this morning in the BVI News I read that Mr. Kellner , the billionaire that has that golf course you see from the water along the Nail Bay coast of Virgin Gorda, and owns Saba Rock was killed in a helicopter crash in Alaska. I was not aware that he owned the Sugarcane Restaurant for a number of years.

After the Hurricane I was told he supplied barges and materials from the US and donated them to the effort.

Then I open the BVI Platinum and see they have 9 new cases of CoVid that seem to be community spread. They have had 0 or 1 case for a good while. Anyway the vaccination program seems to have a lot of vaccine and not enough arms willing to get the shot. One article talked about moving to a one day quarantine of vaccinated tourists if enough of the population was vaccinated. Sadly the comments seem to reinforce that many fear taking the shot.

At any rate you can Google BVI news and BVI Platinum for details. I was looking for a better news day.

I believe they detected one case of an attendee at a recent funeral - not sure if that was community spread or not. The other cases were detected as a result of the screening (testing) program for travelers.

Honourable Malone, Health Minister, recently posted (see attached) - it seems there is some reluctance amongst BVI persons to take the vaccine. This is certainly not unique to the BVI.

Horrible news about Mr. Kellner.

The full story of the helicopter crash is on the AP wire that pops up on My Mac. They were on a heliskiing trip. He is known as the richest Czech in the World. Another sad 'chopper crash..they happen way too often.On the other news..just over three weeks out for us and anxious about protocols....better or worse!

ecm--when you state "The other cases were detected as a result of the screening (testing) program for travelers", do you mean that the other positives were tourists??

I see ecm posted a chart that gives the origin of the tests ..the article I read never included that. It seems they were primarily picked up on entry or day 4 whether tourists or residents. The concerning part is the one case that does not appear to be such and attended a funeral.

At any rate such info with the news they are not vaccinating people at a rapid pace concerns me that relaxation to one night quarantine mentioned in the other article is unlikely anytime soon but would open things up.

I assume those two saying travel at the bottom are most concerning as I assume they were in the territory moving about prior to the positive test.

I was just in the USVI and my local friends said there is lots of undocumented travel between the BVI and the USVI. In fact they complained about the BVI being locked down to them but lots of BVI people are sneaking over to the USVI and back.

I can't say for sure whether they are tourists as returning residents or belongers go through the same testing protocol. I have not seen where the government has shared that level of detail.

Yes, I believe those cases were caught when they tested in order to return home. As you say, they had been in the BVI moving about for several days. If the tests were 100% accurate one might conclude that they caught it in the BVI since (presumably) they tested negative upon entry and day four.