The Premier said those persons posed a risk to the rest of the Territory when some insisted on going to their respective homes on the basis that there was no legislation binding them to be quarantined without being tested positive for COVID-19.

“Mister Speaker, if I had my way they wouldn’t have reached back at all. I am not afraid to tell them,” the Premier said on March 27, 2020 during the Sixth Sitting of the Second Session of the Fourth House of Assembly (HoA) of the Virgin Islands today at Save the Seed Energy Centre in Duff’s Bottom.

He added: “Mister Speaker, thank God none of them didn’t show up anything when they were tested.”

Legal ramifications

Meanwhile, Premier Fahie said, these individuals made some legal arguments which his administration eventually caved in to.

“The only reason we came here with the Bill [the COVID-19 Control and Suppression Miscellaneous Provision Act] Mister Speaker, is there were those when the borders were closed started to argue legal points, that the country cannot shut out its nationals.

"It became a legal discussion and a legal argument, so what happen, Mister Speaker, is some of our own people pushed back at the government legally, that they have to be able to come home, so we said to them, “alright, although we closed our borders only nationals can come home but you have to agree to be quarantined,” he pointed out.

He continued: “Mister Speaker some of our people agreed and stick to it, but some of them agreed but when they landed, they landed with some poor attitudes and said: ‘there’s no law to make me quarantine and I am going home’, Mister Speaker, and it had some of them in this House supporting the action.”

Notably, the three confirmed cases of COVID-19 were imported by persons who had travelled from the US and Europe where the virus is rampant.