Minister Malone announces new protocols

Honourable Malone is speaking now. After June 15th he is saying fully vaccinated travelers will not have any quarantine and no test upon arrival. They will have to provide a PCR OR Rapid Antigen test within 5 days of arrival and evidence of vaccination. Gateway charges for fully vaccinated travelers will be reduced to $35. He said cabinet has approved this change. I will look for a printed press release and post it as soon as possible.

If you use Facebook, here is a link to his announcement (video): https://www.facebook.com/BVIGovernment/videos/595061768136015

This video and a transcript should be available soon - I will update with those when I see them.

Thanks for that. Wonder if that means no Good Seal transport?

they didn't specify but upon arrival a vaccinated guest won't be in quarantine so I see no reason there would be a need for them to use Gold Seal transport.

That will be great news for Anegada, Jost, VG, as well as the ferry companies. Water taxis out there could get pretty costly. It should also help alleviate some of the testing capacity issues.

We are arriving 6/12 😭😭😭. Happy for those coming after us though!

I wonder what this will do for the stress inducing BVI protocol everyone is going through to get permission to arrive?

Unfortunately, not much is changing in the permission to arrive steps. Will be much easier once people are here though. No more entry test, approved transport, quarantine for 1-2 days, turning trackers, etc...

Hopefully soon the US will change protocols and not require entry tests for vaccinated travelers so the last test will be eliminated too.

In many ways the requirement for the outbound test is more obtrusive on vacation plans that the pre-arrival protocol, so I agree that it would be great if the USVI eliminated the test requirement for fully vaccinated.

Also on my wish list is seeing the reduction in arrival testing leading to opening up to inbound water taxis.

I literally just completed the portal for 8 people and that is a beast. We arrive on the 14th so very happy for those of you that will start later and still have portal but not the Day 0 airport brain scan PCR-RT test and quarantine

Here is a link to the minister's written statement.

Honourable Malone's Statement of 10 June regarding new protocols

Louismcc - if you are fully vaccinated and have a positive antibody test (good for 4 months) and are transiting back to USVI via water taxi or ferry, you can use that result for reentry.

I saw that and may go ahead and get the test. I just wonder if everyone who has been vaccinated (we all have) will get a positive antibody result.

It appears that the USVI accepts the rapid test but I don't know if that is a test currently being administered in the BVI to people heading out to the USVI.

I'm arriving on the 14th - one day too early to take advantage of the new protocols. Are the "gold seal" taxis more expensive than the normal exorbitant rates?

Land taxi rates appear to be the same. Real issue has been water taxis. At first the government paid, but then travelers had to pay, in cash. They were supposed to put out a rate sheet, but didn’t. I got a written quote for $100. He forgot, and when we got to the dock he tried to charge us $160 - for a five minute, one mile ride.

Louis - I had Moderna and my husband had Pfizer - we both tested positive for antibodies two weeks after second dose.

I'm thinking of hunting down a place that does the antibody test (aren't that many compared to the PCR testing places) because it would make it easier to do transits to and from the USVI. I had read somewhere that older folks (I'm 66) weren't generating as strong an antibody response to the vaccination (I had Pfizer) so thought that might result in a negative antibody test.

Still for the obvious travel benefits it's worth pursuing.

LabCorp did antibody tests for my wife and I last year for $10 each. No appointment was needed.

CVS does antibody in their minute clinics.

And some of their pharmacies without the Minute Clinic.
https://www.cvs.com/content/antibody-testing

I'll check again but the CVS in our area don't show that as an option.

Update: Found a CVS not too far away that does them while you wait for $38. Eliminated any further testing for the trip is well worth $38!.

Make sure that it is acceptable..... we found several that were not.

$150 later did work. $38??? are you sure?

According to the CVS website, $38, no insurance accepted. I'm not sure how to evaluate whether or not it will be accepted but they call it "COVID-19 antibody testing". What I'm not clear about is whether or not being vaccinated will generate the antibodies. There have been some articles that indicate older people's immune system may not generate the antibodies but yet we are still protected against COVID.

Since the BVI still requires a test and now accepts the rapid test, we'll still do a rapid test. What gets saved is a trip to a clinic in the BVI for another test 5 days before heading back to the USVI.

We got ours at CVS. Used for USVI via ferry. They specify igg vs. igm antibodies which is what is needed when I called USVI for information.

Everyone in our group used CVS for antibodies. It was $38 and all of us got IgG positives and IgM negatives, except for my 12 year old got positives for both (she got her test 1.5 weeks after her second vaccine). The USVI portal accepted all of our results. We are all vaccinated and none of us had Covid that we know of.