A viral video of three women who claim they were allowed to stay in The Bahamas without presenting a negative Covid-19 PCR test has raised the alarm over the process to reduce the spread of coronavirus following the opening of borders.
The three unidentified women said it took them eight hours to travel from Boston to The Bahamas but when they got here they discovered they didn’t have the requisite test results to enter the country.
“We came from Boston. We took an eight-hour flight, first to Houston then here,” one of the women said in the video.
Another woman chimes in, “We took three COVID-19 tests and interrogation at the airport twice by two women.”
“They first told us that we had to get on a flight back to America and that we were not welcomed because of a certain Covid test,” she said.
“There’s a certain one called PCR. They don’t accept the antigen. It has to be a PCR test swab yet they require it within seven days, so it’s really difficult to get results back within seven days,” her friend added.
Bahamians have questioned how the three women were allowed to stay in the country without presenting results for the required test. It also raises questions about the effectiveness of the process implemented to prevent visitors who may be infected with Covid-19 from entering the country and spreading it to Bahamians.
”They could be transmitting covid because of the wrong test. They flout the rules and nothing happens to them? This is unsafe for Bahamians and unfair,” said one observer.
Another asked, “How did they get in the Bahamas with the wrong test?”
This isn’t the first time the integrity of the process has been called into question.
Some Bahamians travelers admitted to the Gallery that they left the country for a few days but were not able to secure the results of the required Covid-19 PCR molecular swab test in time for their return flight so they visited the government website and uploaded a random picture. Shortly after, they said they got a green color code indicating they had approval to enter The Bahamas.
Uncertainty mounts as coronavirus cases in the United States skyrocket. The US has confirmed a total of 3.37 million cases and 137,000 deaths.
Florida reported 12, 624 new cases today. It comes on the heels of 15,300 new cases in the Sunshine State yesterday.
Since the reopening of borders, the number of cases on Grand Bahama has nearly doubled, with 6 cases confirmed on the island last week alone.