Covid surging in Bonaire

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It is obvious Bonaire doesn’t want us to visit. I guess they make enough from government give a ways. That’s fine, other places want our business.
I have no idea why you think this. They are desperate for us to visit! The Netherlands has laid down rules they must follow, and those have been to onerous for the US airlines to follow. That could change very soon. The entire country of 19k people is trying to get vaccinated so they are ready for us. Rule are changing tomorrow. More rules are changing later this week. Expect big changes in June.

All this fluff about testing at the airport is a private initiative that the government has not bought off on yet.
Why the angst about an antigen test upon arrival? PCR 3 days before you go...antigen there.
It is the US that requires an antigen or PCR test before you come home.....not Bonaire, not the Netherlands.
Or, maybe Chicken Little can't read.... :)
 
It is obvious Bonaire doesn’t want us to visit. I guess they make enough from government give a ways. That’s fine, other places want our business.

I'm sure they want your dough, but can't handle the risks of a major outbreak. About two months ago they had a massive surge of COVID cases after opening up to a few locations, it overwhelmed their hospital and COVID patients had to be airlifted to other places (I believe some went to the Netherlands and some went to Colombia).

I don't blame them at all, let them work on vaccination roll-outs until they feel they can safely re-open without putting their population at risk. But you do you man.
 
Press Conference in Bonaire yesterday. Transcript/Translation here.
One notable paragraph:
upload_2021-5-13_11-24-33.png
 
In a May 12 speech, the Lt. Governor announces downgrade to risk level Phase 3.

And annoying as it is to meet the testing requirements, I think I'm glad that the island is trying to minimize the amount of infection on the island.
 
Current restrictions on Bonaire (Level 3):
1305-Maatregelen-ENG-1.png
 
I have no idea why you think this. They are desperate for us to visit! The Netherlands has laid down rules they must follow, and those have been to onerous for the US airlines to follow. That could change very soon. The entire country of 19k people is trying to get vaccinated so they are ready for us. Rule are changing tomorrow. More rules are changing later this week. Expect big changes in June.

All this fluff about testing at the airport is a private initiative that the government has not bought off on yet.
Why the angst about an antigen test upon arrival? PCR 3 days before you go...antigen there.
It is the US that requires an antigen or PCR test before you come home.....not Bonaire, not the Netherlands.
Or, maybe Chicken Little can't read.... :)

Why do I think this? There are 3 islands in the ABC chain. Aruba did not choose to follow the Netherlands, from my understanding (which is probably wrong) this meant they would not get their governments bail out money. Bonaire and Curaçao took the money and restrictions. Aruba decided the tourist money out weighed government subsidized living. Aruba has rules that make sense and still allow visitors to safely visit.

I have no problem taking a PCR test 72 hours prior, no complaint about taking an Antigen test to come home. But to require an antigen test 4 hours prior to your flight leaving for Bonaire says “we don’t want you here”.

“Chicken little”? That’s makes no sense. I have zero fear of COVID and nothing in my post alludes to the sky is falling. I just stated a fact that Bonaire, by their rules and actions, does not want visitors to their island. The people may feel differently but their elected officials have made it clear.
 
Why do I think this? There are 3 islands in the ABC chain. Aruba did not choose to follow the Netherlands, from my understanding (which is probably wrong) this meant they would not get their governments bail out money. Bonaire and Curaçao took the money and restrictions. Aruba decided the tourist money out weighed government subsidized living. Aruba has rules that make sense and still allow visitors to safely visit.

I have no problem taking a PCR test 72 hours prior, no complaint about taking an Antigen test to come home. But to require an antigen test 4 hours prior to your flight leaving for Bonaire says “we don’t want you here”.

“Chicken little”? That’s makes no sense. I have zero fear of COVID and nothing in my post alludes to the sky is falling. I just stated a fact that Bonaire, by their rules and actions, does not want visitors to their island. The people may feel differently but their elected officials have made it clear.

There is a difference in that Aruba and Curacao are constituent countries in the Kingdom of the Netherlands along with Sint Maarten and Netherlands. Bonaire is a special municipality within the country of the Netherlands. As constituent countries, Aruba and Curacao have more more latitude in defining the Covid-19 testing requirements for entry. As a special municipality within the country of the Netherlands, Bonaire has the same Covid-19 testing requirements as the Netherlands. So, there was no "choice" made by Bonaire when the Netherlands set the testing requirements for entry into the country.
 

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I have to agree on the 4 hour antigen test. It doesn't make much sense to open up direct flights from the U.S. and then say you have to have an antigen test 4 hours prior to departure. This strikes me as kabooki theater in that it's basically instituting a flight ban from the U.S. without having to take the politically uncomfortable position of actually stating we are instituting a flight ban on flights directly from the U.S.
 
But to require an antigen test 4 hours prior to your flight leaving for Bonaire says “we don’t want you here”.

I have to agree on the 4 hour antigen test. It doesn't make much sense to open up direct flights from the U.S. and then say you have to have an antigen test 4 hours prior to departure. This strikes me as kabooki theater in that it's basically instituting a flight ban from the U.S. without having to take the politically uncomfortable position of actually stating we are instituting a flight ban on flights directly from the U.S.

The "4 hour" requirement has not existed for quite some time, and it was required by the Netherlands, of which Bonaire is a municipality. It is now a 24 hour requirement, and relatively easy to satisfy.
 
Instead of making wild hypothesis about imaginary bias against Americans on the part of Bonaire, try and come up with even one logical reason why they would want to exclude the vaccinated US population. Anti-vaxers being excluded makes sense because Bonaire has something like 6 intensive care beds, but not any proven healthy money spenders.
 
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