TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Arrival rapid antigen testing

Interesting. That would make things easier. Good to see Spadaro coming out publicly to demand some action.

He is pretty much spot on with his assessment.

They should fund it at point of flight origin to SXM, or even charge us but accept that test result. Rapid testing would make so much more sense, and he is correct in that people like me are going to places like Mexico rather than Hawaii or the Caribbean since it is so much easier. I hope they do this soon before we have to prepay for our test!

To be perfectly honest, if we didn't already have our flights and three weeks accommodation paid for, we'd probably be going elsewhere next month. The stress of timing everything perfectly isn't pleasant. And for those of you traveling from the west coast, it's even worse!

SPADARO is spot on and more hotel owners need to start jumping up and down screaming at the complacent almost non existent government to really do something that is beneficial to SXM. For some reason it seems to many politicians don't really think they can ever kill the only golden goose SXM has which is tourism so they just do about nothing but collect their paychecks. Soon even their paycheck will go away as Holland is sick of SXM government too Example after example of getting next to nothing done year after year. Airport mess is just one. Millions of dollars at risk and tourist are now and will go other places and that's sad for all of SXM. They survived many hurricanes but seems their own government is the one thing they may not survive. YET many still just sit.

The airlines serving Hawaii are offering pre-departure testing. I believe this is being coordinated with the authorities in Hawaii to (mostly) avoid duplication.

COVID Testing for travel to Hawaii - by The Points Guy

And that’s what makes sense. Your last flight from the US or Canada to sxm should do the rapid test prior to boarding. All problems would be solved. If not negative you do not board. Pretty simple.

I completely agree, but the earlier perceptions of the unreliability of the rapid tests are lingering, even though they have now been proven to be at least as accurate as, if not moreso than, the PCR tests.

Correct.

After reading the article, I can see some glimmer of hope, that the government just may see this as a solution, that may work for both the island and visitors alike. We love our winter getaways as we live in the cold northern states . St Martin has been our choice of destination as we just love the island and the people . Covid has made traveling difficult and I'm sure more people will be looking to vacation where its easiest to do so. We scheduled our 2021 vacation back to the island before the lock down from covid, not knowing how long this was going to last. We are hoping by November they will find a easier solution to finding a safe and easier way to test and protect both the island and the guests. The RT-PLR nasal swab is not a very easy test to get and I'm not sure if vacation is enough to get me to want that test. I hope the government does their people right by helping the Island to attract the tourists back . So many people depend on it .

If you never were infected with covid, would you have antigens?

Antigens are not the same as antibodies. Antibodies are what you'd have had you been infected.

Antigens are actiive as in having the virus.