CHRISTIANSTED — Commissioner of Tourism Joseph Boschulte says while the global community learns to adapt to COVID-19, protecting lives and livelihoods while ensuring the territory’s economic survival is the order of the day for the foreseeable future.
Boschulte said while there was a 5.6 percent increase in overall positive cases over the past 24 hours (from 249 to 263), with increased testing, the Territory saw less than two percent of all persons tested in the past 24 hours delivering a positive result.
Additionally, fatalities have remained low (at six deaths) and unchanged for more than two months.
“Throughout the course of this pandemic the U.S. Virgin Islands has been extremely vigilant in keeping our community and visitors informed about and engaged in our approach to mitigate the spread of COVID-19,” Boschulte said.
“News stories that report high increases in positive cases since the return of leisure travel to the Territory fail to acknowledge that our policies and protocols have been extremely effective in managing the spread of the disease. In fact, health data reveals that the recent uptick in the number of positive cases is associated with business travel, which is being mitigated.”
“But this does not mean that we rest on our laurels … we are in this for the long haul,” Boschulte said, adding that careful public health management and messaging is required to continue to mitigate the spread of the contagion, while also breathing much-needed life into a difficult economic environment.
Boschulte also noted that recent reports do not take into account the small size of the territory’s population compared to U.S. states experiencing high percentage increases. “Relative changes to small numbers can appear to be more significant than they really are,” he said, acknowledging that every additional COVID-19 case was cause for concern.
The tourism leader explained that about a third of the territory’s positive cases were linked to contract workers at the oil refinery on St. Croix, where testing of the entire 3,000-strong workforce of employees and contractors is taking place consistently on a 14-day cycle.
The refinery, already practicing strict screening measures, has redoubled its testing and isolation protocols, and is working closely with local government officials and the Department of Health to do more to mitigate spread of the virus.
The commissioner said with the uptick in cases across about a dozen U.S. “hotspot” states as well as strong airline load factors, he believes new testing requirements announced by Governor Albert Bryan, Jr. will help protect the community, while achieving the delicate balance of injecting resources into the economy.
But Virgin Islanders on social media were skeptical of the government party line on COVID-19 — because it does not address the elephant in the room — where are the majority (66 percent) of coronavirus cases coming from?
“Since this Corona all you people, well most of you people have been saying; Limetree Limetree Limetree. The simple million dollar question is ‘WHAT AHYO DOING BOUT LIMETREE,” Avis Ronan wrote on Facebook. “I personally refuse to belief the virus is contained only in one central place.
But you guys are the experts. ‘Keep singing the same song’ Limetree.
This will soon be Road March. What is the gov’t doing since is Limetree?
Look at what the Bahamas did. It expelled everyone that is not a citizen from their islands. No one from USA is welcome. Drastic Situations NEEDS drastic measures. Saying the same thing and expect different results. That is an oxymoronic stance.”
Bryan did ban new workers from coming to Limetree Bay Refinery since the COVID-19 flare-up first started on St. Croix’s South Shore weeks ago.
Effective July 15, 2020, any traveler 15 years old or over, whose home state has a COVID-19 positivity rate of greater than 10 percent will be required to produce a negative COVID-19 antigen (molecular/PCR/rapid) test result received within five days prior to travel to the U.S. Virgin Islands or a positive COVID-19 antibody test result received within four months prior to travel to the territory.
Positivity rates are updated here: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/testing/tracker/overview.
Routine temperature checks and health screenings are being conducted at ports of entry. Testing, quarantine and isolation protocols are in place for suspected and confirmed cases of COVID-19 and also for contacts of confirmed COVID-19 cases.
The USVI is in a precautionary “Open Doors” phase of restarting its tourism-based economy. Travelers are encouraged to review the travel advisory on www.usviupdate.com and familiarize themselves with the Toolkit for Travelers.