As Antigua’s V.C. International Airport gets ready to reopen for international flights from June 1, both residents and guests coming into the island are being advised that they will be tested for COVID-19 on their arrival.
Information Minister Melford Nicholas made this announcement following Wednesday’s meeting of the Cabinet, which he said had “some fairly lengthy discussions on what needs to happen.”
V.C. Bird International airport will welcome its first international flight from American Airlines on Thursday, June 4 at around 11 p.m.
“We have made arrangements and arrangements are now being put in place to ensure that when the flight arrives, all those persons, both nationals and citizens who are returning home; and would-be visitors are going to be subjected to the rapid testing at the airport before they are allowed to go any further on the journey,” Nicholas said.
“If the rapid test indicates that a person arrives here and shows positive signs of infection, they would be isolated at the immediate moment and taken into one of the special facilities in which isolation will take place.
“For persons who would otherwise passed the test, because the rapid test is not as accurate or does not carry the same gold standard as the PCR testing, there is likely to be a secondary round of testing for those persons who would have tested negative. But this is to ensure that we have a shield in the first instance to ensure that we can eliminate persons … and to give our front-line persons the assurance that everything is done to protect them from being exposed to the virus,” Nicholas added.
Residents with negative test results will be allowed to proceed to their respective private residences, while tourists with negative results will proceed to their respective hotels.
Carolyn Campbell
Only for Caribbean flight.