What's up with these letters to the editor, and why does the Tribune keep publishing them? Daniel claims to live in Shrewsbury, New Jersey and has to drive for an hour to get to a clinic for a test? That's BS. It take less than a hour to drive from Shrewsbury to downtown NY city. $275 for a test? That's also BS. New Jersey if offering free testing throughout the state.

Every couple of days a new letter with the exact same complaints and overly scolding attitude of entitlement. It's like the same person keeps writing them, and of course the Tribune just publishes without much thought.

The letter writer's complaints seem quite valid, given my acquaintances in the US have told me the same thing.

So your US aquaintances are as inept at organizing themselves as Daniel (should really have signed it Karen). Consider our entry procedures as sort of a litmus test, if you can't manage to organize yourself to get here then you'll be too stupid to follow rules once you are here.

Part of this letter are legit, but the testing is free almost everywhere stateside and widely available.

The five day window is tight and hard to plan for. 3-4 days just to get lab results, 24-48 hours after that to get your health visa approved. Everything has to go perfectly or you can't make the flight. Fortunately most airlines have free rescheduling now. But it's tough to travel anywhere right now

Dream on. The testing is not free state side and costs even more if you need to get the lab results back on an expedited basis. I've been tested a half dozen times or more in the US in order to get back into The Bahamas and each time cost more than the next.

The testing is free if you want to wait a week or even 10 ten days for the results. If you need the results in 48 hours, you've got to pay at a private clinic.

The bottom line, is that it doesn't matter what the pros or cons think about this issue. Reality will decide the final outcome. When the number of tourists does not rise, then perhaps people in the Bahamas will question the system. Unfortunately by then many repeat visitors like the gentleman from NJ here may have discovered greener pastures in Cayman or St. Martin or elsewhere and decide to become repeat visitors there instead.

The cost of this COVID nonsense is going to come out more and more as 2021 goes along. All of the true foolishness will be brought to light. Right now people have all kinds of information that they are just holding on to, awaiting the right time to speak. Right now you cannot speak or else you are called a killer. Nobody wants to be called a killer. Eventually society will wake up to realize that Covid is not the only thing that kills people. Amazing, I read an article that says the CDC does not plan to issue any figures for flu infections this winter - guess they gonna mark them all as Covid ?

It's like the joke about the guy in the Everglades swampland in Florida who was eaten by an alligator one afternoon a few weeks ago. He died later that same evening of Covid.

*The testing is free if you want to wait a week or even 10 ten days for the results. If you need the results in 48 hours, you've got to pay at a private clinic.*

Exactly right. Testing with same day results costs at least $200, and there aren't that many places that do it. Also, most insurance won't cover it. Testing with results in 2-3 days is anywhere from $0-$150 and usually covered by health insurance. However, since most people go the free testing sites the wait time to get results is typically longer, especially when infections increase.

The reality is that the only thing this travel testing regime is for is to try to convince scared Bahamians that the government is doing 'something' even if it is completely ineffective at controlling the spread of the virus that is already within our borders. And as short as 5 days is, it is still a ridiculous notion that people cant catch and transmit the virus within these time frames so to introduce a dog and pony show this late in the day is quite absurd and nothing more than an unnecessary drag on our tourism. Hopefully, all of the other big hotels will put their foot down, as Atlantis already has, and force the government to get over itself....

Dog & Pony Show is correct - for the ignorant, both here and in the USA. I had to laugh the other day when it was reported in US news that even after you get the vaccine you still have to wear a mask. LOL. Once China and Russia are vaccinated and are back to normal, they are going to get tons of good laughter and entertainment by watching the western world still walking around with their masks on.

Why is wearing a mask going to look funny? In Asian countries it is quite common to see people in masks when they have head cold etc. Been that way for a long time. Also, people in the west often wear balaclavas, scarves or other items that cover their mouths and faces.

the 5 day rule is not only stupid, it is useless. You can catch covid between the test day and arrival. Most labs also provide test results within UP TO 72hrs. Now how does this sum up with health visa taking ALSO UP TO 72 hours?! Primary school math gives me 8 days when I sum up both, but idk maybe these officials who make the rules didn't attend any school and for them 4+4 = 5?

Who makes these idiotic rules.

All civilized countries offer test on arrival.