uk_grenada

We have new protocols just started. From now, we have stopped all testing at the airport. All visitors apart from arrivals from low risk and the bubble have to have 4 days min booked at an approved hotel. On the 4th day they are tested, and then released ‘into the wild’ if negative. This is apparently the latest scientific thinking, testing is irrelevant on arrival as people may be infected but not testing positive , you have to let the bug incubate for 4 days to catch all infected.

uk_grenada

Im told this is the new caricom thing, whats happening to visitors in your country? We are also getting more visitors now flights have started from AA, Jetblue and air canada. The uk is absent and of course tnt our neighbours are still locked down

Gordon Barlow

Sorry, Grenada: I haven't noticed this thread before. As you know, Cayman has been Virus-free for the past couple of months, and is not letting any visitors in at all - although that's expected to change soon. We are still only allowing returning residents, including "temporary residents" who own property here. But they have to self-isolate in their condos and if caught outside they are quarantined in locked hotel rooms that they have to pay for themselves. Flights for those allowed to come, are operating from Miami and London***, and on the return journeys are taking migrants who have been trapped here since March, plus kids at boarding schools and universities. I've read that there are something like 720 individuals in quarantine/isolation, which seems a lot.
*** and maybe Toronto.

Gordon Barlow

This just in for visitors to the BVI.
https://www.bvitraveller.com/officia...OABE5VxbPjm620

uk_grenada

Its the standard caricom protocol, with the added complication of requuring insurance. This will screw the process as many [the older richer often] cannot obtain holiday insurance for other reasons and some home countries and airlines dont provide it. The recommended caricom solution is to get visitors to sign a waiver that they agree to be responsible for any costs.

We find its fine for visitors, its returning locals who will screw it up by absconding and moonlighting at rum shops and parties....

Gordon Barlow

A friend of mine last week flew into Miami from Cayman - an empty waiting area in MIA, and no trouble with quarantine because Cayman is virus-free. She took a bus to Orlando for a couple of days, then another bus to Fort Lauderdale where she caught a plane to San Jose, Costa Rica. No problem getting in there either, because they take all comers. She and a friend hired a car and drove up to some retreat in the jungle. All that travelling and not one day of quarantine. That's good news in these awkward times, isn't it!

From her jungle retreat she sent me a photo of a bat that was in her bedroom. I warned her not to eat it...

skip84

In TCI, we have a small number of cases (35 as at 28 November). to enter, you need a negative PCR test within 5 days of travel, and insurance, on arrival they do a temperature check and they you are allowed to run free.

Because Beaches still haven't re-opened our air links have been affected, most of the tourists coming in are staying at villa's over hotels which seems to be a new norm..

i travelled to Miami recently, seems relatively safe with social distancing and hand sanitizing everywhere you turn.. Miami airport was a ghost town and immigration was very easy since there were no travellers...

Gordon Barlow

Cayman has had a few instances of self-isolaters breaking loose, to the fury of everybody else. A couple of Canadian dentists came back to their holiday-home here and went shopping. Caught, prosecuted, fined and deported for (I think) as long as the coronavirus is around. And a local resident let his girlfriend break out and there was hell to pay there, too. If I recall correctly, they were both transferred to one of the government quarantine arrangements, by which they were locked in a hotel room for two weeks and let out only when they test negative - and then she has to do 40 hours of community service before deportation. We have about 1000 people in lockdown, currently.

As you'd expect, there is much debate about opening the border to tourists, but none have been allowed in so far.

Gordon Barlow

https://www.caymancompass.com/2020/1...ation-flights/
The above link for anybody interested in going to Cuba. Or from Cuba, I guess, although most of Cayman's visitors from Cuba come in home-made boats...

Gordon Barlow

I'm about to rent my spare bedroom and bathroom to a nurse at one of the hospitals. Things being what they are these days, I asked her to check with her employer that I am an acceptable landlord. By choice, I don't test for The Virus, and see no need for it yet; and I will submit to vaccination only when the vaccines on the market have been tested for a lot-lot longer than they have been to date.

My son will come over from England or Norway next summer for a month, and will self-isolate with me for his first two weeks; so the nurse (if she's still with me) will have to move out for that period. I'll have to stock up with food for the fortnight, unless I come to an arrangement with my neighbour to buy stuff and leave it just outside my property line, and phone me when she gets home. (She would not be allowed to cross the line and nor would I. Penalty is a $10,000 fine and time in prison. Serious ting, man! Heavy manners.)

Cayman is still Virus-free, although some newly returned residents in quarantine and self-isolation have tested positive. We permanent residents feel wonderfully privileged to walk around with no masks*** and no social distancing; handshakes and hugs as and when circumstances warrant.
*** except in hospitals and doctors' offices, and dentists'!

Gordon Barlow

Personal update... To my son's great relief, I changed my mind about taking in a hospital nurse as a lodger. He had a fit when I told him my intention. (He lives in England and I'm here in Cayman by myself.) In the end, we reckoned it was too risky. And I think getting vaccinated is too risky at the moment, too. The vaccines have been rushed through, and there is doubt that they have been sufficiently tested.

On a different topic... Here's a report of an English couple who have been prosecuted in Barbados for breaking quarantine rules.
https://caymanmarlroad.com/two-briti...e-in-barbados/

skip84

LOL i just read about the english couple!

RE: vaccine, we just received just shy of 5,000 doses of the pfizer mRNA vaccine, i have nurse friends that have taken and encouraged me to do the same if i get the opportunity, i was worried to begin with but the more i read the more relief I'm getting that it should be fine.

Gordon Barlow

Skip. I've just posted another comment on the Cayman thread. You'd better be sure you don't have any allergies.