Tourists to be tested on arrival?

[Marko]

the reversal on such short notice will view Jamaica’s policy arrangements as confusing and potentially threatening airline confidence
500 - 1,000+ people a day entering Jamaica to test successfully and smoothly would be monumental task for Jamaica....
just the number of thousands of test kits required and the expense of providing workers would overtax Jamaica....
should be very interesting to say the least how this all turns out...….

Cool Runnings, Marko

[Rob]

the reversal on such short notice will view Jamaica’s policy arrangements as confusing and potentially threatening airline confidence
500 - 1,000+ people a day entering Jamaica to test successfully and smoothly would be monumental task for Jamaica....
just the number of thousands of test kits required and the expense of providing workers would overtax Jamaica....
should be very interesting to say the least how this all turns out...….

Cool Runnings, Marko

From the Observer:

"But at least one tour operator shocked by the news said the move would cause people to view Jamaica’s policy arrangements as confusing, potentially threatening airline confidence."

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/l...abbed-covid-19

[Rob]

More from the Observer:

"On Monday, seven flights are expected with approximately 1,000 passengers, and of major concern is the Ministry of Health’s capacity to manage traveller volumes. It took more than three hours for the ministry to fully test and clear close to 150 arriving passengers on the most recent UK flight into Kingston.

It is believed that the Montego Bay Convention Centre may be used to facilitate the testing of passengers.

“Moving persons from the Montego Bay airport to the Convention Centre for testing will be disastrous,” said one stakeholder, who asked to remain anonymous."


As mentioned, this is a logistical problem. Jamaica up to this point can process about 300 to 400 tests in a 24 hour period. On Wednesday they handled 325. It took 3 hours to just swab 150 Jamaicans returning from the UK at the airport. 1000 visitors are expected on the 15th. The math doesn't look good. And for those who don't know, the convention centre is a few miles past the airport heading east, away from Negril.

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/l...abbed-covid-19

In another Observer article Dr. Tufton stated:

"He said there may be some ambiguity or lack of understanding surrounding the protocol for testing and results, pointing out that results are generally returned in 24 to 36 hours. However, he said a number of factors can cause a hold-up.

“This period may be lengthened on occasion for a number of reasons, including a delay in the transportation of samples, samples held as more processing is required, or retesting is required because samples may be compromised or an invalid report was generated by the machine… this process, even though efficient, does have downtime, and contributes to delays… it's not something that we are happy about; we don't want to inconvenience persons who are waiting for results, and we regret where persons have to wait, but it's not a precise science because of the mechanical and the limited staff that we have,” Dr Tufton said."

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...ng-home_196149


It looks like we will be hearing more about this before the 15th - keep checking back for the latest!