Gay Nagle Myers
Dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic, to put it mildly, has been a challenging exercise for Caribbean islands, with many fits and starts.
The U.S. Virgin Islands is no exception.
"We initially thought back in March that in two to three months that Covid would go away," Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. said during an Aug. 26 webinar sponsored by the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association. "We were the first destination out of the gate when we reopened on June 1."
All seemed to go well at first, and the USVI had a good 75-day run except for an outbreak among workers at the oil refinery on St. Croix, another in a convalescent home and a third in the prisons that brought case numbers up, according to Bryan.
"We contained these fairly quickly," he said, "but unfortunately, case numbers continued to creep up, some of which were attributed to community spread by residents returning from other destinations. Familiarity is killing us, and people forgot as the weeks wore on and they removed masks, greeted friends and hugged one another."
The islands had gone so far as to promote a new electronic portal to prescreen travelers.
But in mid-August, the territory reconsidered its approach. It closed its airports to leisure travelers for 30 days, barred accommodations providers from checking in guests, closed all bars and mandated a stay-at-home order for residents.
Gov. Albert Bryan Jr.
"We plan to reopen again on Sept. 15," Bryan said. "Short-term pain is long-term gain, although I feel we will be dealing one way or another with Covid for the next two to three years.
"The challenge is to achieve a balance between getting the economy up and running while keeping our visitors and our residents safe and healthy," he said.
The governor would like to see rapid testing implemented for people in the territory and for arriving travelers.
Before the most recent shutdown, U.S. travelers coming from states that have a positivity rate of 7.5% or higher must produce results from a negative Covid-19 done five days prior to arrival. Arrivals who cannot produce the required test result are subject to a 14-day quarantine or until they test positive.
To help the local economy throughout the pandemic, the government paid $250 toward each person's electric bill, gave $1,000 to every school graduate, expanded its public hospitals on St. Thomas and St. Croix, and announced an investment of $5 billion over a 10-year period in infrastructure projects, such as the new, four-lane highway on St. Thomas between downtown Charlotte Amalie and the cruise pier to alleviate traffic congestion.
To help cope with a shortage of nurses and doctors, the USVI is offering a free week's vacation to stateside medical personnel, and if they are needed while in the territory, Bryan will call them in to help out.
"As this pandemic begins to ease, I expect that we will see more Airbnb accommodations in St. Thomas, a growth in the villa and timeshare markets on all three islands, the emergence of smaller boutique properties and further expansion in the charter-boat sector," Bryan said.
He's confident that visitors will return, not only to the U.S. Virgin Islands but to all the destinations in the region.
"There's no better place to heal mind, body and spirit," he said.