As Anguilla continues to work on opening the tourism industry, Premier Dr. Ellis Webster says that the plans are going very well.
“I would like to thank the Minister of Tourism, the Honourable Haydn Hughes; the Parliamentary Secretary, the Honourable Quincia Gumbs-Marie; for spearheading this; the Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Aisha Andrewin; Permanent Secretary, Foster Rogers, and the other members of the health team.
“What we have found is that because we delayed our opening – after some of the other countries in the region – we have been able to take best practices. We have seen where they made good decisions and where they have made decisions that were not so good; and we are taking the best practices not only to decrease the chance of importing the coronavirus but to minimise the chance that it can spread into the community if it comes in.
“We have also allowed the hospital to develop the healthcare services that are available. We have the Cuban Medical Brigade that is here to help in case we have persons who get infected and need to go to the hospital. We have isolation rooms and ventilators; the personal protective equipment – gloves, masks and gowns – and we have been able to train the health staff; the immigration and customs staff; also the service providers, such as those working in the hotels and villas; the ground transportation workers; and ferryboat operators. And so I feel that this time [of closure] has allowed us to get everybody involved and trained. They understand that this is a deadly disease and we have to make sure that we can protect ourselves and the people of Anguilla.
“I think, all in all, that we are doing a great job, getting everybody on the same page. We have the protocols in place that have shown to work best. The hotels and villas have their own standard operating procedures which have been shown to work. I think we are doing our best because we have to open the country to help our economy – and to help our hospitality workers to get back to work.”
Premier Webster stressed that opening Anguilla was not a free-for-all matter. “We still require persons to go through a pre-approval process, and they have to come with a negative test three to five days before they come. They have to get tested on arrival and that has to show a negative result; and then they have to stay in place at whatever facility they go to. If they go to a hotel or villa they have to stay at that property – they don’t have to stay in their room. They can go to the beach in front of that property. They can go to the golf course by appointment to play… They can do water excursions as long as the tour operators have been certified.
“They [the tour operators] have to go through the same training and have protocols in place that the Chief Medical Officer and the rest of the health team feel will limit the chance of the spread of the virus if it come in. So the application process is still there to make sure that we know who is coming; and where they are coming from. That will determine how long they would have to stay in place. If they come from a low prevalence area, less than .02 percent prevalence of the disease, they will be in isolation for ten days before they can go out in the community or to their favourite restaurants; hang out with Anguillians they want to hang out with. That’s what most tourists want to come for.
“We have seen that there are persons who have made reservations to come. The numbers are not booming. I think most of the hotels are saying between 8 and 16 percent. Some persons who have reservations before have cancelled because of the restrictions – but we feel this is a good balance between what is good for the visitor coming and what is best for the people of Anguilla to protect them.”
Premier Webster concluded: “Our hospitality workers have suffered from March 20th when the borders were closed until now. And a thousand EC dollars a month doesn’t go very far. We feel that the economy has stagnated. We want to give it a boost; get our people back to work; start back our tourism industry; and make us a little less dependent on handouts.”
