Quarantine to end for domestic travel

As of November 8, there will be no quarantine requirement for domestic travel, according to the latest emergency order released yesterday.

However, a negative RT-PCR test, no more than five days old, is still required for anyone traveling from New Providence, according to the Emergency Powers (COVID-19 Pandemic)(No. 10) Order, 2020.

The negative test must be obtained prior to applying for a health visa.

Children under 10 are not required to take the test.

The order also notes that senior government officials, who are traveling for immediate government business, may be exempted by the competent authority from the requirement to obtain a health visa or undergo an RT-PCR test.

Travelers from New Providence will also be required to undergo a rapid antigen test five days after arriving at their destination, as is required for international travelers. 

Should a traveler test positive with the rapid antigen test, they will be required to undergo an RT-PCR test and quarantine while awaiting the results. 

If the RT-PCR result is positive, the traveler will be required to quarantine for 14 days.

The order notes that people traveling through New Providence for less than 24 hours will not be required to obtain any further travel visa.

It is also noted that people will not be allowed to travel from islands where a lockdown is in place or where an impending lockdown has been announced.

On Saturday, Minister of Tourism Dionisio D’Aguilar announced that individuals traveling to The Bahamas are no longer required to quarantine for 14 days. They will be required to have tested negative for COVID-19 within five days of travel, but there will be no rapid testing upon arrival, as had been previously indicated. 

However, D’Aguilar did not, at the time, indicate whether the removal of quarantine requirements also applied to inter-island travel.

Some were critical of the lack of changes to the domestic travel policy, calling it discriminatory that some Bahamians would be required to quarantine while tourists would not.

D’Aguilar said the delay for quarantine-free domestic travel is due to efforts to build the electronic platform to facilitate the travel visa process.

“We have tried as best as we can not to create a bifurcated system,” he said yesterday.

“We understand the implications of that.

“But in order to support a domestic tracking mechanism, you need a platform. So, we were refocused almost exclusively on building the international platform.

“And during the course of this week, we’ll build out the domestic platform. So, we just ask the Bahamian people, let us just get the infrastructure in place and we’ll roll that back in the quickest possible time, hopefully in the next seven days.

“And then we will have the necessary IT backbone in place in order for people to upload their PCR test, if that’s required; they can enter in where they’re going. Because you know, this filling out forms and all that sort of stuff, really isn’t a viable solution. We just need a working platform that people can easily use.”

The post Quarantine to end for domestic travel appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.

source https://thenassauguardian.com/quarantine-to-end-for-domestic-travel/