TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin New Covid cases in ABC islands

https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/new-cases-in-aruba-curacao-and-bonaire
This is not a good sign that travelers brought this in. Same will happen with St Maarten when more travelers return to island.

I'm confused as to the positive cases in Aruba from the Miami flight, as Aruba is requiring a negative PCR test from those from Florida.

Passenger may have had a negative result but contacted it prior to boarding or even during the flight. Also could have been an inaccurate test too. Not sure of residents were required to have the test either. Non the less there is a lot to learn before St Maarten proceeds with opening up island to North American and European travelers.

But Aruba just opened up to the US on July 10. Surprised that someone is positive already, and sick enough that they apparently went to a doctor on island. They had to have a negative Covid 19 test in order to get on the plane in Miami.

And that is the problem. A lot of time between when you get your test that you could pick up the virus and when results are in for that 72 hour window requirement.

I read six cases total. Only one was a visitor. Hard to really know where they contracted it or even what country they originated from.

This is the reality of opening borders to nations who are still battling Covid. Pre testing will not stop the virus from being brought on island. The tests are not always accurate and or you can test positive after you have taken the initial test. With incubation lasting between 1 - 14+ days after exposure, there is no way of knowing how quickly it will spread on the island. If St Martin wants to start allowing tourism in, they need to ready their residents and medical facilities for a possible spike no matter what precautions they may be implementing.

To expect the cases to remain at zero AND have any sort of economy is just a pipe dream. The whole idea is to keep cases to an absolute minimum and this is done by simply wearing a mask when in public areas and shopping...not when walking on the beach...not when sitting by the pool (distancing).....in MA and RI s is just a common practice EVERYWHERE you go and the case numbers show it.

It is not a big freaking deal to wear a mask..... .

If Aruba has six cases and everyone conformed to guidelines the impact would be minimum...

Totally disagree with your statement. Especially since the CDC believes the reason the south is having issues with increased covid-19 cases is due to Northerners travelling south. Article at The Hill.

First ....what "Northerner" who lives in a state that has dealt successfully with COVID would risk THEIR lives going to FL at this time? Really? Maybe you mean Northern Floridians....80,000+/- new cases a week and they come from states with cases in the low hundreds or less?....

Makes perfect sense to me....

It's called confirmation bias.....

Edit: I forgot to ask...what do you disagree with. I am saying wear a mask....and you disagree?

If that was directed to me where did I say disagreed with you?

Sorry...I was replying to the post above my response....

Facts vs beliefs: and a general FYI

Ignoring number of tests and number of positives it makes much more sense to just report the percentage of people tested that were positive. You could do 100,000 tests and get 13,000 positives which looks (is) bad or you could keep the reported positives down by decreasing tests 1000 tests "only" 130 positive ...actually no difference

Percentage positive of Northerners vs. Floridians ....

MA .....2.2%
NH .....1.9%
CT.......0.8%
ME......0.8%
NJ.......1.4%
NY.......1.2%
RI........3.8%
VT........0.8%

...and Florida....18.1% of all tests done over the last week are positive not counting today with 11,466 more new positive cases

I've only looked at numbers about a week ago in Massachusetts with a third of the population of Florida, you have half the numbers of positives of Florida. Massachusetts needs to at least double their amounts of testing to get near a true number.

[quote]You could do 100,000 tests and get 13,000 positives which looks (is) bad or you could keep the reported positives down by decreasing tests 1000 tests "only" 130 positive ...actually no difference[/quote]

Out of every 100 people tested in MA 2.2% were positive ...consistent 7 day average since mid June

Out of every 100 people in FL tested 18.1% were positive....up from 8.2% 7 day average since mid June

Wear a mask

And again, guys, PLEASE, stop with the stats. You can use stats to prove anything you want.

Yup...went a bit bonkers with the "Northerners are causing it now " thing....sorry...but facts are necessary to be informed. Not opinions...facts..and you can get them yourself. I am done

Daily Testing and data from John Hopkins