The Health Minister was at the time speaking as a guest on the December 15, 2020, episode of the ‘Honesty Speaking’ radio show moderated by Mr Claude O. Skelton-Cline.

5 Persons tested positive on arrival

The Minister said that although policies required testing 5-days before travelling to the territory, persons arrived in the VI and tested positive on the first COVID-19 test.

“We know that once you swabbed in your port of origin, you still have chances to interact with persons before you board that plane so we test when you arrive. So on that test is where we have now found about 5 persons who have tested positive,” Hon Malone said.

He said, therefore, the government’s testing and policies worked because they were able to quarantine those persons and not have them throughout the community unknowingly with the virus.

He said another 4 persons were discovered in the 4-day quarantine period and subsequent test, bringing the total positive cases to 9 since the re-opening of the territory on December 1, 2020.

Health Minister, Hon Malone said another 4 persons were discovered in the 4-day quarantine period and subsequent test, bringing the total positive cases to 9 since the re-opening of the territory.

Gov’t looking to modify release time of test results

Hon Malone revealed; however, that government is looking to modify the test result release time from just a 24-hour period to between 24-48 hours, due to increased testing being done.

“We had promised 24 hours, we may have to look in terms of having that 24 to 48 hour period in order to get the results back.”

Hon Malone said the intention of the Government is not to stifle commerce but rather with increase testing, the result will take a longer time to be released, given that test results also require analysis.