This growth has been helped by the truth that since March 1, everybody over the age of 16 is eligible to take the vaccine within the Virgin Islands – so vacationers don’t even have to fret about slicing the queue. The realm hosts about 100 walks every day, too. “Nowhere else in the USA are you able to simply go in and get the vaccine, somebody over 16 years previous,” Bryan stated Monday. On March 1, the island additionally opened two federally supported neighborhood vaccination facilities in St. Thomas and St. Cross.
Vacationers to the USA additionally face much less paperwork when visiting the US Virgin Islands in comparison with different Caribbean locations. In the event that they submits a unfavourable coronavirus check inside 5 days of departure for the territory, or a constructive antibody check performed inside 4 months, is not going to be quarantined upon arrival. Vacationers to Jamaica and Barbados, quite the opposite, they’re requested to place them in quarantine nevertheless. And American vacationers can’t go to the Cayman Islands except they adjust to the laws eligibility standards.
Dr. Hunte-Ceasar stated that, at this level, the Division of Well being has not thought of vaccine tourism as an issue. “We undoubtedly wish to ensure that native residents are vaccinated,” he stated. However “we’ve not didn’t serve each populations.” The Virgin Islands presently have 27,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, 18,900 doses of the Trendy vaccine, and 600 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine out there, stated Monife Stout, the division’s director of immunizations.
Noreen Michael, a scientist on the College of the Virgin Islands who research well being disparities, admitted it was essential to ensure vaccines have been out there to residents who needed them, however stated she had seen no proof to recommend that vacationers get the resident vaccines they need. “On the general public well being facet, it’s a plus,” he stated. “On the fairness facet, I do not see it as a big challenge.”
Maybe, too, vaccine tourism might be used as a pressure for good – to safe doses for marginalized teams in different areas. Though the Virgin Islands present free Covid-19 vaccines, the islands might cost vacationers for his or her vaccines, and the funds might be used to ship vaccines to areas that want them, stated Felicia Knaul, worldwide economist at well being on the College of Miami. “May we ship these vaccines to Jamaica, or to the Dominican Republic or to Haiti?” he requested. “When you recover from the important thing points of welfare and human rights, if you should use that funding to pay for individuals who now haven’t got entry, I believe it is price interested by.”
For now, well being authorities are targeted on methods to scale back the incidence of vaccines within the territory. “Folks entry misinformation and perpetuate lies and issues which are dangerous,” Dr. Hunte-Ceasar stated at a press convention final week. Consequently, the islands have skilled a rise in circumstances and hospitalizations that he stated give them “chest ache and heartburn each night time.” Though vaccination efforts seem like declining, residents ought to start embracing the vaccine extensively if the island is to attain its purpose of vaccinating 50,000 Virgin Islanders by July 1.
In the meantime, guests from the continental United States will proceed to learn from the additional doses. Some stayed even longer than that they had anticipated, and even considered going to the islands perpetually.
“I began falling in love with the Santa Croce tradition,” stated Hemal Trivedi, a documentary filmmaker who lives in Weehawken, NJ, and was vaccinated in Santa Croce in February. “In the direction of the top of the journey, we have been truly on the lookout for a spot to buy.”
