TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands CDC raises BVI to level 4 Covid

Zanshin, unfortunately you are correct about the lack of good planning.

The tug-of-war between the BVIHSA and private clinics is interesting. Logic would say the government should be happy to have increased testing capacity. They clearly aren't. That makes me wonder if money is at the root of it. The health department community tests are free, or paid by NHI. They charge tourists and others leaving $70/each, which may generate some surplus. If those tests migrate to a private clinic, the profit migrates with them.

I did my PCR test yesterday and the paying clientele were clearly being taken ahead of the local NHI-sponsored folk. It was certainly run by the government - 4 distinct stations to go through before I got to leave, and only the actual testing was done my medical staff. There were 9 active staff running the tests, yet throughput was surprisingly slow. I do believe that it is a profitable venture. And my test cost $150 because I had to take a cab from CGB and back so even the powerful taxi drivers got some profit out of the tests.

Are cruise ships still arriving and debarking passengers at the Pier?

No - there was a cruise ship at the dock yesterday for a "warm layover" which I guess means nobody can embark or debark.

One needs to remember that the CDC warnings have very much to do with the capacity of local health care, and not so much to do with rates or numbers of infections. The BVI went months with virtually zero cases but the CDC warned against going there. Same with the USVI, at a time when the governor was bracing about the high rate of vaccinations coupled with low rates of infection. Pretty much nowhere in the Caribbean passes muster with the CDC even on a good day.

Jason, are you saying you can't use a positive antibody test for the USVI anymore?

Good catch! You absolutely can use a positive antibody. I edited my other answer. Sorry for the confusion.

The test can be 4 months old for arrival by sea or 3 months old for arrival by air.

But can't be used when taking a ferry from the BVI to the USVI

I'm pretty sure it can. Just no rapid antigen test any longer.

Jason - I stand corrected:

Zanshin - If you are referring to the antibody test (taken within 4 months), it is my understanding this is acceptable for vax'd travelers entering the USVI from BVI by boat. This is the test we used to enter on July 14.

Jason, is that just specific to BVI? We took a PCR test yesterday and haven't got results yet. Hoping we get them tomorrow but we scheduled a rapid antigen test since the usviportal.com website still states that as acceptable. I think if we need to we can go about 30 minutes away and get a PCR test with results in a few hours. Unfortunately for a price of $250 and we'd need 3 if ours from yesterday don't come through.

EDIT - I just re-read it and see it seems specific to the BVI. Been too long a week dealing with all our travel hiccups, can't wait for Saturday!

I understand and agree wholeheartedly Carol! However, I think it is important to keep the facts straight for those affected, misinformation is not helpful wherever it is…😀

I just got my PCR results, turnaround time under 48 hours. Now I need to get the BVI to let me clear out!

Fair winds. Let us know where you end up!

Good luck, Zanshin. Keep us updated!

I finally got my pre-clearance this morning, and had an appointment at 10:00 at the West End to clear out. All went quickly and well and I was charged 50 cents (don't know what for, as I had already filled out my form). Because I'd gotten the pre-clearance, they didn't check my boat papers or temporary import or entry papers so I was in and out in 5 minutes - except waiting for the group of 6 in front of me, who hadn't filled out any paperwork in advance and took a long time filling out their forms...

So now I'm getting the outboard removed and stowed (this is the one time I hate having a 20HP outboard) and then have to get the dinghy on deck. Once all that is done, I'm off to St. Lucia - 325NM on a true course of 143. Winds are such that I will probably have to tack sometime in the next 3 days but I'll wait until I get into the lee of Gaudeloupe or Martinique to do that. By then the winds and waves will have settled a bit. It is BFT5-6 right now so I'm going to have really batten things down.

That's awesome safe travels and hoping that tack isn't too taxing

Best wishes. Safe travels!

Sorry I didn't get a chance to see your boat while we were on our charter. Glad you're finally cleared.

I'm currently passing CGB, motoring upwind. Conditions aren't great for upwind travel - I'm going to get as much easting as possible in the "shade" of Tortola and Virgin Gorda and go via the passage between Prickly Pear and Neckar. That'll give me a couple of degrees better angle and less wear-and-tear on me and the boat.

Fair winds!!

Safe travels and enjoy your time in St Lucia!

Awesome - thanks for the picture! I am only a bit embarrassed to get caught motoring - but the conditions today aren't great for sailing upwind. The dinghy is firmly attached to the front deck and I'm heading towards the North Sound now, almost at the dog Islands. It is cool to have connectivity while underway

Stay safe my friend and see you again soon..Nic pic Jason.

I just tucked into the North Sound - because I couldn't leave the BVI before the 19:00 curfew and the weather tomorrow is going to be a lot better than tonight Since I've got 24 hours after clearing out to leave the BVI I'm still legal... Nobody else anchored off Prickly Pear but several boat moored at Leverick Bay. I've got 5Gb of data left on my plan and can't figure out how to use it tonight...

Happy to see Zanshin made if safely to St. Lucia!

Glad to hear it. I wondered if anyone had heard from him.

It was a sub-optimal trip. I knew it when I saw the weather charts, but I was so happy to get out of the BVI with the stress of not getting permission to stay nor to leave that I decided to do it. Basically, there was a tropical wave coming through and the winds were south of east - meaning I had (a) bad weather with clouds and squall lines, (b) wind almost on the nose, and (c) a disorganized wave system making life aboard miserable.

It took me 3 days, I left at 08:00 from the North Sound and arrived at 08:30 in Rodney Bay. I'll post a chart of my route, but basically I couldn't make any better than due south with no easting. When I did motor east it didn't come close to making the trip shorter.

I managed to cajole the lady at Health to allow me in without another PCR test - I was a bit disingenuous about my arrival time and she didn't want to do extra paperwork involved with another test and quarantine at dock. I cleared into Customs & Immigration with nary a hitch, I'd forgotten that officials could be friendly after my trips to the BVI - we chatted about Japan and they wanted to know certain phrases to impress their friends with. Ahhh, the BVI can certainly learn from this.

I've not used my A/C since way before Irma, but here at the docks I'm going to need it, so now I'm waiting for a technician to come by with magic greenhouses gasses for me

Glad you made it, even though it sounds a very uncomfortable trip. Are you going to stay there through hurricane season?

I haven't decided yet. But I will be here for a bit. Prices for dockage are really good ($400 per week for 57" with water and power and A/C extra) and the internet is really fast so I can do some home-office work. And perhaps I'll find time to explore St. Lucia by land. If a tropical wave comes through that might turn into a hurricane it is only a 24-hour passage to Grenada to get out of the path of the storm, so it is a good location. Too early to tell, first I'm going to have to have dinner ashore tonight and have some tasty food rather than my cooking on this passage which wasn't much. But I did try making Macaroni & Cheese. It tasted worse than I remember from my college days and was probably only 25% organic because I added that amount of milk and butter.

Any update in the past few days of more people getting vaccinated? Just wondering if this surge in cases could be a blessing in disguise and gets more people to get out and get vaccinated.
Thanks!

Last update I saw included statistics thru 31 July @ 3pm. 12,009 fully vaccinated people. 497 active cases.

Enjoyed following your updates the past 10 days - have you considered starting a blog with your experiences for others to also enjoy? Maybe while you have some downtime in St Lucia!

I do have a daily blog; my homepage auto-updates the most recent blog entry and a link to the calendar can be found by clicking here

Sorry, Jason, I don't how many people you are talking about? Is that people on Tortola or all the BVI's? 12,009 out of how many? That also seems like a lot of current cases compared to a month ago as well. I wonder if this is going to pay dividends in a couple months or not. Thanks always for the help and insight.

The case count is actually much better. We were at 1,600 exactly 2 weeks ago.

Total BVI population is 30,030 so our vaccinated numbers are pretty poor at 40%.

Thanks Jason! Our second and last payment on the villa on Tortola is coming up soon on Aug 23rd and it's a little nerve racking. We are "all in" on coming if we're allowed and it's safe. Booking travel nowadays is stressful when it should not be. Before you booked a trip and showed up, not today.
Thanks again for all your insight. Cheers!

Jason, what's your source for the vaccination numbers? Is this published somewhere regularly?

Not sure I'd say regularly, but they are published when the case numbers are published. Last update is attached and is from 5 August. I got it from Facebook. I'm sure if you listen to the announcement from Friday evening, the newer numbers are mentioned there too. It's not at all consistent.