Minister of Health, Molwyn Joseph said over 40,000 passengers arrived in Antigua & Barbuda since the country reopened its borders on June 1, 2020.
The country was forced to close its borders earlier in the year as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
He said prior to the reopening, the Ministry of Tourism with the assistance of the Ministry of Health developed protocols.
The Minister insisted most of the visitors to the country have adhered to those protocols.
“When you think of 40,000 and you have the odd case where they say, okay a visitor has breached the quarantine, let’s be realistic, you’re not going to get a perfect situation”, the Minister told state media.
“When these things happen, we take note of them and deal with them seriously and then we will say that we have to look and see how we can tweak the system to prevent those things from happening.”
“Every visitor must be told what the rules are and sometimes that is not done”, he admitted adding, “then the visitor will stray.”
The Minister said he thinks that “we can intensify that process. So, when you arrive at the airport and you’ve been through the first screening etched in your mind are the rules of the game and I think we can do a better job that way.”
“At the hotel itself, we now have to ensure that the receptionist, the bartenders, all the others who serve, are part of the process that remind the visitors of the rules”, he added.
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take the bus stations seriously. Buses are still loading passengers at full capacity. YALL NOT TAKING NOTHING SERIOUS. ALL TALKs… IDEK WHY CURFEW IS IN PLACE. PPLE GET COVID AT NIGHTS? SUPERMARKETS ARE CROWDED.
Will 2021 see all arrivals tested, quarantined for 3 nights, re-tested on day 4, then either released or placed in govt quarantine at Jolly beach( if that is still the location)?
There have been consistent egregious breaks of protocol by most tourists & some businesses since we reopened with little punitive action.
Just take Old Years Night… restaurants packed and ADDING tables to accommodate MORE than their usual numbers! What a joke! Where are the reduced table numbers to allow large spacing between tables in open air environments, and dividers in inside environments? Where are the servers MASKS?
Proven Super spreader events are popping up over the region, I wonder if Antigua will ever record any such thing?
I wonder if our ‘active cases’ numbers will fluctuate very much,
I wonder if tourists will be held in quarantine, will have to observe protocols, I wonder if bar & restaurant owners & staff will have to wear masks at all times,
I wonder if anything will change in Antigua before we reach 70% population vaccinated, which likely won’t be until fourth quarter of 2021,
I wonder ….
There need to be more structure where the protocols are concerned. Check out some of the schools, supermarket and bus stations. Who is really ensuring that protocols are being followed.
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