Home quarantine for fully vaccinated arrivals will likely end

ONE MONTH after its introduction, the option that had been given for fully vaccinated arrivals to spend their 48-hour quarantine period in a private residence will most likely be discontinued.

This was disclosed yesterday by Chief Medical Officer Dr Simone Keizer-Beache, who said on NBC Radio that implementation and supervision of the home quarantine option has been challenging.

“The option for quarantining at home has proven to be very problematic in terms of the implementation and the supervision of it. So that has been a challenge … and we are looking to revise that component of the protocol. So we are most likely looking at going back to just 48 hours in a hotel as the only option for fully vaccinated persons and moving the home quarantine component.”

The protocol allowing fully vaccinated persons coming from a high risk country to bypass having to quarantine in an approved quarantine hotel was introduced on June 10, 2021 and required that travellers arrive with evidence that their last dose of an approved COVID-19 vaccine was at least two weeks prior. They were required to apply for approval to quarantine in a private residence at least two weeks prior to arriving in St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) and were only granted permission if the residence was empty, or if all of the occupants of the residence were fully vaccinated.

But now, it seems that this option is coming to an end and fully vaccinated persons will be required to spend their mandatory 48hour quarantine in a Tourism Authority/MOHWE approved Transition/ Quarantine Hotel at their cost, to await the result of the entry screening before discharge from quarantine.

They must also provide evidence of full vaccination; must arrive with a negative result of a COVID-19 (RT-PCR) test done no more than 72 hours before arrival; and must be retested on arrival in SVG.

Unvaccinated travellers from ‘very high risk’, ‘high risk’ and ‘medium risk’ countries, are still required to quarantine for a mandatory period in a a Tourism Authority/MOHWE approved Transition/Quarantine Hotel at their cost, for periods ranging from 21 days (very high risk countries) to 7 days (medium risk countries) depending on the risk associated with the country the person was last present in for at least 21 days.

Arrivals from Anguilla, Dominica, Grenada and Montserrat, which are deemed ‘low risk’ countries may be tested on arrival in SVG and will not be required to quarantine if there is no evidence of onboard vessel exposure and they are not in a high-risk occupation.