TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands BVI HSA Testing Delays attributed to new system implementation

I agree BoScott. We bought Covid specific travel insurance (medical and quarantine) as well. It also had medical evac. Insurance although we also have that through DAN.

Feel sorry for the group and certainly hope we don't encounter similar problems in July (we'll be full vaccinated by then) but this is the exact reason the BVI has the day 4 test. If they hadn't been tested, and assuming it wasn't a false positive, they would have spent the last few days of the trip as virus spreaders to an unprotected population.

Hmmm...makes me think it is best to buy a travel-specific policy as well instead of using my Florida Blue.

And I agree, Carol — and on top of that...not sure how they will justify allowing “fully vaccinated” cruise ship passengers to wander about in their “bubble” (insert rolling eyes here) while forcing charter and villa guests to test multiple times and quarantine...

So much depends on one's circumstances. If you are staying in your own home, then extra quarantine is not a cost issue. We have worldwide health insurance and MedJet Assist, so that covers medical treatment and/or evacuation.

Having followed this saga on FB, it seems the biggest issue is how they were treated by the government. At a minimum, there should be a second test to confirm positive cases. Unfortunately, the reality doesn't always live up to the BVI Love hype. Visitors also need to acknowledge that they can be the tiny percentage of those for whom things go wrong with regard to Covid.

I assumed if someone was positive we could stay on the boat for the duration in a quarantined area as we have the boat for 14 days...I need to check that out now

Agree there should be a 2nd test...

Thought maybe they were quarantining on land and planning to pick up the boat after.

From what I have heard, if anyone in the charter party tests positive the boat must go to a quarantine dock.

This conversation has hit the nail on the head

As background, my wife and I both had Covid at Christmas
Nothing worse than a bad cold and, by the grace of God, we
didn't spread it to anyone else.
We consider ourselves fortunate
We both got tested. I tested positive and she tested negative.
Of the tests that I have 1st hand knowledge (2), 50% were wrong

The plan was for us to join another couple in April for 3 weeks, land
based, in Virgin Gorda
To get there and back involved a total of 16 tests, 4 tests / person.
Ignoring the initial tests for the other couple, it leaves 14 tests that all
need to be negative or our vacation is a hot mess.
The obsessive planning, practice packing to get everything into carry-ons,
making a new playlist, all the other stupid stuff that was part of previous trips is
replaced with concerns about tests results, something I have no control over

For the people of the BVIs, I hold no hard feelings.
Only hope and best wishes.
I haven't seen anybody that's doing things that much better, certainly not
enough to be pointing fingers, but that's why we canceled our April trip.
We will be rescheduling as soon as possible

Looking forward to hearing of all your wonderful trips and vacationing vicariously

Mike

I checked and they said most likely you will be required to go back to the dock...i figured you would be safer to everyone else at a quarantine spot on the water. You then can move to an approved villa. There is a 2nd case now so expect this publicity to get larger. No good answers here and certainly wouldn't attempt if I didn't have a credit that I had to use

If you own your own place in the bvi but you decide to go on a charter to begin your trip where you will spend the 4 day quarantine and someone tests positive are you allowed to finish the quarantine in your own place at end of charter? I have visions of the couples that veered over the line and were stuck in a small hotel room, in their case waiting till they paid ransom.

Mike we are 6 days out and full of anxiety! We will let everyone know how it goes.

The person on the trip I mentioned above who was positive was retested in the BVIs and was negative. Given the Day 0 test was negative and they were negative coming down I think this can be chalked up to a false positive.

Ironically the social media site this was posted on (BVI Alive) which is moderated by charter brokers and other conflicted parties took the post down.

I am hopeful that enough publicity will be generated here that the BVI government will make provisions for an immediate Day 4 test retake if you are fully vaccinated (and recognize this group only had 1 of 2) and you test positive on Day 4 after testing negative coming down and Day 0...

I just read that the BVI have received 34,000 doses (with a population of ~30,000) but they have only administered 8,500 of them and there is a danger of them expiring soon. This is not a distribution issue, but it seems that the belongers are wary of vaccination. With worldwide supplies of vaccine being so low it is a shame to see this potential waste. I can only shake my head, instead they are blaming their new "more efficient" system for testing delays, and discussions about reducing the 6ft distancing to 3ft so that the schools can reopen... St, Kitts and Grenada are looking to make vaccination mandatory.

The government has already stated they will be returning some doses to the UK and Dominica if more people don't decide to be vaccinated. At this point, I'd say 10,000 people is an aggressive goal for the BVI so 14,000 doses can be returned/redistributed.

Right before it got taken down the original poster stated that even though the test ultimately came back as a false positive by that time the entire trip was ruined and unsalvageable so just an FYI.

Sorry to be late with my reply MK. We had our pre-departure test on VG and results in 44 hours. We went to bed the night before our flight home not certain if we would have our results in time for a noon flight. They came in sometime after midnight.