{"id":113287,"date":"2020-07-09T16:32:04","date_gmt":"2020-07-09T20:32:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/?p=113287"},"modified":"2020-07-09T16:32:04","modified_gmt":"2020-07-09T20:32:04","slug":"taxi-drivers-happy-that-visitors-have-to-test-before-arriving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/taxi-drivers-happy-that-visitors-have-to-test-before-arriving\/","title":{"rendered":"Taxi drivers happy that visitors have to test before arriving"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/div>
\"\"<\/a><\/div>

Taxi drivers said they welcomed the government\u2019s policy that requires passengers to test negative for COVID-19 before boarding a flight to Antigua & Barbuda.<\/p>

\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll be happy because if you notice the last time there were like 39 cases and so if they should be negative coming here at least the island can be COVID free and we will feel much safer\u201d, Emelda Frank, a taxi driver operating at V. C. Bird International Airport, told state media.<\/p>\n

The government said passengers must take the test within seven days of their flight.<\/p>

\"\"<\/a><\/div>
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

Another taxi driver at the airport Steadroy Frederick said: \u201cI am happy that the government had made that decision because we have a family to protect, ok, \u00a0and when we know that they are being tested and they are negative, we feel good about it.\u201d<\/p>

\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

The taxi driver said he and his colleagues took a major hit in their finances when the country went on lockdown from late March to early June.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we stayed at home, we don\u2019t get any money, but we still got to pay our bills, we still got to feed our family. So, I\u2019m happy that the government has made the decision to open the airport\u201d, Frederick said.<\/p>

\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say good, but at least we were home for like two months not doing anything, so we\u2019re really, you know, happy that we\u2019re out to work, Frank said adding, \u201cwe\u2019re getting work like maybe every two days or so.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said many of the taxi drivers have still not come out to work since \u201csome, what you would say, have like certain sicknesses and so on and so they are like staying away.\u201d<\/p>

\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Taxi drivers said they welcomed the government\u2019s policy that requires passengers to test negative for COVID-19 before boarding a flight to Antigua & Barbuda. \u201cWe\u2019ll be happy because if you notice the last time there were like 39 cases and so if they should be negative coming here at least the island can be COVID […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nTaxi drivers happy that visitors have to test before arriving - Antigua News Room<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/taxi-drivers-happy-that-visitors-have-to-test-before-arriving\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Taxi drivers happy that visitors have to test before arriving\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Taxi drivers said they welcomed the government\u2019s policy that requires passengers to test negative for COVID-19 before boarding a flight to Antigua & Barbuda. \u201cWe\u2019ll be happy because if you notice the last time there were like 39 cases and so if they should be negative coming here at least the island can be COVID […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/taxi-drivers-happy-that-visitors-have-to-test-before-arriving\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Antigua News Room\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/antiguanewsroom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-07-09T20:32:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/mlavawteztbj.i.optimole.com\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/VC-Bird-International-airport.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Editor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AntiguaNewsRoom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AntiguaNewsRoom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Editor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/taxi-drivers-happy-that-visitors-have-to-test-before-arriving\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/taxi-drivers-happy-that-visitors-have-to-test-before-arriving\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Editor\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#\/schema\/person\/36cac05ef6398fe56ae3e6317f8535c5\"},\"headline\":\"Taxi drivers happy that visitors have to test before arriving\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-07-09T20:32:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-07-09T20:32:04+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/taxi-drivers-happy-that-visitors-have-to-test-before-arriving\/\"},\"wordCount\":296,\"commentCount\":2,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/taxi-drivers-happy-that-visitors-have-to-test-before-arriving\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/mlavawteztbj.i.optimole.com\/w:960\/h:720\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/VC-Bird-International-airport.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/taxi-drivers-happy-that-visitors-have-to-test-before-arriving\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/taxi-drivers-happy-that-visitors-have-to-test-before-arriving\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/taxi-drivers-happy-that-visitors-have-to-test-before-arriving\/\",\"name\":\"Taxi drivers happy that visitors have to test before arriving - Antigua News Room\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/taxi-drivers-happy-that-visitors-have-to-test-before-arriving\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/taxi-drivers-happy-that-visitors-have-to-test-before-arriving\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/mlavawteztbj.i.optimole.com\/w:960\/h:720\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/VC-Bird-International-airport.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-07-09T20:32:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-07-09T20:32:04+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/taxi-drivers-happy-that-visitors-have-to-test-before-arriving\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/taxi-drivers-happy-that-visitors-have-to-test-before-arriving\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/taxi-drivers-happy-that-visitors-have-to-test-before-arriving\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mlavawteztbj.i.optimole.com\/w:960\/h:720\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/VC-Bird-International-airport.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/mlavawteztbj.i.optimole.com\/w:960\/h:720\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/VC-Bird-International-airport.jpg\",\"width\":960,\"height\":720,\"caption\":\"VC Bird International airport\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/taxi-drivers-happy-that-visitors-have-to-test-before-arriving\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Taxi drivers happy that visitors have to test before arriving\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/\",\"name\":\"Antigua News Room\",\"description\":\"News As It Happens\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Antigua Newsroom\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mlavawteztbj.i.optimole.com\/w:1080\/h:1080\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG_1584.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/mlavawteztbj.i.optimole.com\/w:1080\/h:1080\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG_1584.jpeg\",\"width\":1260,\"height\":1260,\"caption\":\"Antigua Newsroom\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/antiguanewsroom\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/AntiguaNewsRoom\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/antiguanewsroom\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#\/schema\/person\/36cac05ef6398fe56ae3e6317f8535c5\",\"name\":\"Editor\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536?s=96\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536?s=96\",\"caption\":\"Editor\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/author\/editor\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Taxi drivers happy that visitors have to test before arriving - Antigua News Room","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/taxi-drivers-happy-that-visitors-have-to-test-before-arriving\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Taxi drivers happy that visitors have to test before arriving","og_description":"Taxi drivers said they welcomed the government\u2019s policy that requires passengers to test negative for COVID-19 before boarding a flight to Antigua & Barbuda. \u201cWe\u2019ll be happy because if you notice the last time there were like 39 cases and so if they should be negative coming here at least the island can be COVID […]","og_url":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/taxi-drivers-happy-that-visitors-have-to-test-before-arriving\/","og_site_name":"Antigua News Room","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/antiguanewsroom","article_published_time":"2020-07-09T20:32:04+00:00","og_image":[{"width":960,"height":720,"url":"https:\/\/mlavawteztbj.i.optimole.com\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/VC-Bird-International-airport.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Editor","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AntiguaNewsRoom","twitter_site":"@AntiguaNewsRoom","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Editor","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/taxi-drivers-happy-that-visitors-have-to-test-before-arriving\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/taxi-drivers-happy-that-visitors-have-to-test-before-arriving\/"},"author":{"name":"Editor","@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#\/schema\/person\/36cac05ef6398fe56ae3e6317f8535c5"},"headline":"Taxi drivers happy that visitors have to test before arriving","datePublished":"2020-07-09T20:32:04+00:00","dateModified":"2020-07-09T20:32:04+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/taxi-drivers-happy-that-visitors-have-to-test-before-arriving\/"},"wordCount":296,"commentCount":2,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/taxi-drivers-happy-that-visitors-have-to-test-before-arriving\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/mlavawteztbj.i.optimole.com\/w:960\/h:720\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/VC-Bird-International-airport.jpg","articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/taxi-drivers-happy-that-visitors-have-to-test-before-arriving\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/taxi-drivers-happy-that-visitors-have-to-test-before-arriving\/","url":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/taxi-drivers-happy-that-visitors-have-to-test-before-arriving\/","name":"Taxi drivers happy that visitors have to test before arriving - Antigua News Room","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/taxi-drivers-happy-that-visitors-have-to-test-before-arriving\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/taxi-drivers-happy-that-visitors-have-to-test-before-arriving\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/mlavawteztbj.i.optimole.com\/w:960\/h:720\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/VC-Bird-International-airport.jpg","datePublished":"2020-07-09T20:32:04+00:00","dateModified":"2020-07-09T20:32:04+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/taxi-drivers-happy-that-visitors-have-to-test-before-arriving\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/taxi-drivers-happy-that-visitors-have-to-test-before-arriving\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/taxi-drivers-happy-that-visitors-have-to-test-before-arriving\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/mlavawteztbj.i.optimole.com\/w:960\/h:720\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/VC-Bird-International-airport.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/mlavawteztbj.i.optimole.com\/w:960\/h:720\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/VC-Bird-International-airport.jpg","width":960,"height":720,"caption":"VC Bird International airport"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/taxi-drivers-happy-that-visitors-have-to-test-before-arriving\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Taxi drivers happy that visitors have to test before arriving"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/","name":"Antigua News Room","description":"News As It Happens","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#organization","name":"Antigua Newsroom","url":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/mlavawteztbj.i.optimole.com\/w:1080\/h:1080\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG_1584.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/mlavawteztbj.i.optimole.com\/w:1080\/h:1080\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG_1584.jpeg","width":1260,"height":1260,"caption":"Antigua Newsroom"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/antiguanewsroom","https:\/\/x.com\/AntiguaNewsRoom","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/antiguanewsroom\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#\/schema\/person\/36cac05ef6398fe56ae3e6317f8535c5","name":"Editor","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536?s=96","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536?s=96","caption":"Editor"},"url":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/author\/editor\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/anr-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/anr-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/anr-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/anr-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/anr-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/anr-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/anr-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/8777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/anr-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/anr-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/anr-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}