In the past two days almost 150 quarantined visitors to the island have received their COVID-19 test results.
Speaking during a press briefing at Ilaro Court this morning, Minister of Tourism and International Transport Senator Lisa Cummins said major progress had been made in returning the test results of visitors.
She said both PCR tests and rapid antigen tests were used.
“There have been since Tuesday this week, over 234 persons who have been able to come to the Dos Santos Lab to benefit from a combination of PCR tests for outbound travellers who are moving out to Canada and for those travellers who are moving out to the UK. We are very appreciative of the partnership with our airline partners, the British Airways team, the Virgin Atlantic team, who have been able to work with us to get communication out in collaboration with our call centre team to all travellers moving from Barbados to the United Kingdom and they have been able to benefit from rapid testing and antigen testing specifically at the Dos Santos Laboratory,” Cummins said.
“There have been approximately 234 persons as I said and of that number, there were 145 visitors including visiting Barbadians and returning nationals. In addition to those persons, we also have had 89 locals who have been able, as a result of the introduction of additional testing support, to get their test results and to have an antigen test provided for them if they were quarantining in hotels and in some instances, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, those persons whose businesses were closed as a result of positive cases and they had spent the requisite time in quarantine and were, therefore, able to benefit from release.”
The minister also disclosed that a testing facility specifically for visitors to the island should be up and running this week.
“There are also additional arrangements being put in place to facilitate those persons who will continue travelling throughout the course of the coming week. We will have an additional facility stood up during the course of this week and we will make an announcement on that,” she said.
Minister Cummins explained that due to the COVID-19 pandemic the number of visitors to the island was significantly reduced despite being in “high season”.
Senator Cummins maintained that Government was committed to ensuring safe, smooth and efficient travel to and from Barbados.
“Since last Sunday we set up a call centre and we have received hundreds of calls at that call centre since that time. Along with the Ministry of Health, we have been working on ensuring that our visitors and our travellers are able to benefit from getting their test results, but we have also been focusing since Tuesday, on dedicating resources at the Dos Santos Laboratory to allow for persons to travel seamlessly.
“We know that there have been some challenges, we know that there have been difficulties with persons still getting their test results in time and for that it is still regrettable, but we give you the commitment that as a country and as a Government we are working through those issues,’ Cummins assured. (RB)
