‘Not Looking To Quarantine Travellers Until Day 8′
“The Government is not looking to quarantine travellers until Day 8,” Health Minister Kim Wilson said, with the Minister adding that it “would be hugely detrimental to our already struggling tourism sector.”
The Minister — who was addressing an online petition calling for the extension of the quarantine period for arriving passengers — added that the Government will “be tightening up certain aspects of traveller protocols” and she will announce details about that on Friday.
Petition
The petition, which has over 650 signatures as of this writing, said, “Hundreds of Bermuda’s children are currently missing yet another two weeks of school due to the recent positive Covid-19 cases in our community. Many parents have to adapt by taking time off work to look after their children, thereby significantly reducing their monthly income.
“Meanwhile, travellers to Bermuda, who have likely come across a positive case overseas, are only required to fully quarantine until their arrivals test comes back negative, less than 24 hours later.
“Even with a pre-test, there is a reasonable probability that these passengers may come into contact with a positive case in the 5 days to hours before travel. For shorter visits, there is no way to ever tell whether a visitor was positive for Covid-19 while here as there is no requirement to continue testing once they leave Bermuda. In these cases, there is no way to even effectively contact trace.
“Overseas arrivals are the only way that these cases have appeared in our community. Covid-19 cases are continuing to climb overseas and the tests have been shown to be particularly unreliable in the first few days to week after exposure.
“Ask the government to address the problem at its source. Ask for travellers to be more strictly quarantined for at least 8 days. By doing so, Government can regain full control over the epidemic, Bermuda’s children will be able to go back to school safely, and we can certainly avoid a second lockdown.
“Stop the problem at its source. Don’t let children pay the price for travellers’ early freedom. Please sign this petition today!”
Minister’s Response:
Speaking at last night’s [Dec 1] press briefing, Health Minister Kim Wilson said, “I would like to state that I am aware of a petition currently circulating which asks for an extension to the quarantine time for passengers arriving in Bermuda to eight days.
“First of all, I want to say that I am extremely sympathetic to the plight of the parents of children who have had to keep them home from school and quarantine them in response to the latest cases.
“However, I can confirm that the Government is not looking to quarantine travellers until Day 8. This would be hugely detrimental to our already struggling tourism sector. Who would come to Bermuda if they had to quarantine for 8 days?
“We must balance the need to protect public health with the need to keep our economy going.
“However, I can say that we will be tightening up certain aspects of traveller protocols; the details of which I will share during my Ministerial Statement on Friday.”
As the island and world deals with the Covid-19 pandemic, we are doing our best to provide timely and accurate information, and you can find more information on the links below.
- All: Our coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic here
- Official: The Bermuda Government website here
- World Stats: Live graph of all cases worldwide here
- Bermuda Stats: Chart of the Bermuda stats here
- Timeline: Visual look at the timeline here
- Comprehensive: Our BermudaCovid.com website here
I bet none of those 650 signatures has a tourism/hospitality related business. They must have nice safe jobs with a guaranteed paycheck. Stop your noise and let us put food on our table, unless you want to contribute to a fund to help us? Thought not! We still have low numbers and the current entry requirements while not perfect are allowing us to operate albeit on a reduced capacity. I have not had a paycheck since March. I’m propping up my business and trying to navigate a successful way through this. You people have no idea! You make my blood boil!
Returning residents should do a 10 day Quarantine .As the last outbreak was from a resident not a Tourist .
You know who would come to Bermuda and quarantine for eight days? High-value wealthy travelers looking for an extended stay in the one safe country that will have them. The government already did a study showing that tourists this summer and fall chose Bermuda as their destination because it was Covid-safe. If it’s not Covid-safe and it’s not even beach season, then what’s the draw?
Yes Agree. I would feel safer if Bermuda residents had a pre-flight Covid test. A visitor is not safe if seated next to or near a Bermuda resident on an aircraft!!! I am Bermudian and am currently living overseas. I have to go through very strict protocols to be able to come home to Bermuda! Residents need to think about travellers .
This is amazing to me every one so quick to put money in front of safety. People only worry about self. Your worried about loosing money from your business. That parent is loosing money from her job. Please remember this year has been hard on everyone in different ways. The person that gets to work from home Belco has gone up, Internet had to be adjusted. Then you have the people that have only 3 days of work.
When will you people realize we all need to work together. We really can fix our island but we have to work together.