TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Testing delays

https://bvinews.com/covid-results-delayed-because-bvi-health-services-is-short-staffed/

The government is unable to handle the volume of tests, resulting in delays.

It's really shocking to me, but not surprising, the gov didn't think thru the details required to roll this out.

Well, I guess this explains why they delayed the ferries from coming, but again, sure seems like they should have known before the day before, when some folks from the West Coast had already left home for the islands already.

yeah, they really left many travelers with a tough situation. Poor form.

Should never have been a surprise. When they announced the reopening, they quoted there was capacity for 330 tests/day. After day 4, there will always be 2 full groups (arrivals and day 4 people) who need tested plus any normal testing required in the territory and any exiting people. Basically means you should never allow more than 100 or 150/day to enter the territory depending on how many non-traveler tests you need to accomodate.

"FEVERISHLY TRAINING" -- really the writer and editir are walking a fine line between humor and irony.

[size:14pt] Minister Malone said health authorities are feverishly training and deploying current worker[size]

only 500 people entered in the first week

When your local internet provider is called "Lime"..meaning relax in the Carib and then changes its name to "Flow" to rhyme with "Slow" you get an idea of just what "feverish training" really implies..and maybe you should not use the word "feverish" when discussing treatment testing for a deadly virus!!!!!

so true...

Fwiw I just received the results from our day zero test taken 26 hours ago.

Par for the course, MrEZ.

And I'm sure most of you have seen that the Premier disavowed the comments referenced at the top of this thread.

Honourable Mallone carefully did not disavow that there were delays, he disavowed that the delays were not due to insufficient staffing. I think the BVI News added that association in their story - a stretch they should not have made (IMO). It was not illogical as the Honourable Minister, in that same forum, put out a call for anyone with experience and qualifications to join the government team.

So what does the Premier attribute the delays to then, if not staffing?

My read on Honourable Malone's statement is that the testing was performed in a timely manner and the hold-up was in informing those tested of their results.

Excerpt from his statement:

"As at December 10th 2020, the staff at the Dr. D Orlando Hospital laboratory has conducted tests in excess of 9,283 samples and continue to produce PCR results in less than 24 hours. Excellent when matched any where in the world.
Additional staff, as indicated, have been reassigned or engaged to assist the Ministry to inform and disseminate the test results in a more timely manner albeit impressive on comparison."

The email I received regarding our day 0 test results simply had the one-word subject "Results" and the sender was "Andrea Gordon-Bowen", a name which was not familiar to me. It wasn't immediately obvious that this was an important communication and I could see someone dismissing the email as some kind of diet plan junk mail based only on the header. Maybe they will have improved on this.

Not surprising. They were actually using a hotmail.com address to schedule inspections.

I received the PCR results for two other people yesterday....we've been in the territory since 01 DEC....I emailed Andrea and she called back promptly apologizing for the error. I've also received multiple erroneous notifications for our scheduled Day-4 test over the last week. Clearly they are having issues with notifications. It wouldn't surprise me if they underestimated the staffing required to roll out the reopening plan.

Meanwhile, we had a great sail yesterday from Deadman's Bay (Peter Is.) to Pomato Pt. (Anegada). Rain and overcast in the AM gave way to sunny skies and an exhilarating sail from Diamond Reef (after an awesome snorkel there) to Anegada in the afternoon.....anchored just as the sun was setting. Best day yet!

Read on Facebook that a couple were placed in a cab with another couple for day 4 testing. One couple tested positive and the other was negative. Contact tracing was performed and now both couples are in 9 day mandatory quarantine. The charter company is recommending parties demand separate cabs.

The BVI is a beautiful place to sail and we have been shut down from doing ANYTHING for months, but why would you spend a lot of money to put yourselves through this BS? It makes no sense to me.

That really sucks, because it's the government that did that to them.

I have to agree. There is just so much uncertainty that any vacation there would not be relaxing for me. And chartering a boat is anything but cheap.

Now that is not right. Messed up.....

Everyone's situation is different. As an owner in the guaranteed revenue program, owner use is a big part of the value proposition. Moorings is unlikely to carry over points, and there are only so many trips we are able to take per year. If I was a retail charter customer I probably wouldn't be here either.

BVI Protocol needs improving.... fast ... Why would you quarantine people into their "boat Bubble" and then put them together?