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It's been an annoyance to many vaccinated Virgin Islanders: the requirement to take a Covid-19 test before being allowed to travel back home, a demand some have argued defeats the purpose of becoming inoculated. On Monday, responding to a Consortium question on the matter, Governor Albert Bryan said the administration was at most two weeks away from implementing a system that would eliminate the requirement.
“If you've been vaccinated and you put in your name you'll automatically get green that you can travel," Mr. Bryan said. "You won't have to take tests anymore. Once you get vaccinated your name will be in there."
Health Commissioner Justa Encarnacion in May told the Consortium that progress was being made on the new system. On Monday, Mr. Bryan said there was a delay with paperwork and matters related to the sharing of medical records, which he said slowed implementation. “The system should have been up this week; we are running late on it," he said.
The announcement will come as good news to Virgin Islanders who have had to spend money to get a Covid test even after being vaccinated — a burden Mr. Bryan recognized. "It's getting expensive when you go to the states finding tests..." he said.
Below, Covid-19 USVI data as of June 5:
- 3.76% positivity rate
- Currently tracking 126 active cases (8 STX; 111 STT; 7 STJ).
- 118,738 individuals tested to date.
- 115,147 of those tests were negative.
- 3,591 tests came back positive.
- 3,437 people have recovered.
- 28 fatalities.
- No Covid-19 patients are hospitalized at Juan F. Luis Medical Center on St. Croix.
- Five Covid-19 patients, with one on a ventilator, currently are hospitalized at Schneider Regional Medical Center on St. Thomas.
