By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net 

LABOUR Director John Pinder said yesterday he believes the Bahamian economy will start to rebound from COVID-19’s impact in the next six months now that the country has started its phased re-opening of the tourism industry.

However, he said, the rebound would still be dependent on the cruise ship and airline industries return.

“I think once the cruise lines start to come in and the airlines open up and they start flying in with their regular numbers, I believe in six months or so we should be in a position where we can see results coming in. The economy should start to rebound by then,” he told The Tribune yesterday.

His comments came as the country welcomed visitors and returning residents without requiring that they quarantine for 14 days and test upon arrival into the country.

Instead, people entering the country are now required to present a negative COVID-19 RT-PCR test no older than five days and have an approved Bahamas health travel visa.

For the duration of their visit, they must complete a daily online health questionnaire for symptom tracking purposes. Travellers will also have to take a COVID-19 rapid antigen test on the fifth day of their visit (unless departing on day five).

The new travel guidelines were announced by Tourism Minister Dionisio D’Aguilar during his ministry’s press conference on Saturday.

Explaining the government’s rationale to scrap antigen testing on arrival, the minister said the decision was made due to the logistics behind such a roll out, given the number of entry points the country has.

Many have since criticised the move, saying they are fearful that the newly relaxed measures would result in a surge of new infections especially as numbers in New Providence – the country’s COVID-19 epicentre — appear to be trending down.

However, yesterday, the Labour Director defended the move, insisting there is no perfect solution to safely reopening the country.

He said: “I understand the concerns but there is no perfect way of doing this. We got to take some risks involved. The steps that have been put in place by the Ministry of Tourism, the Ministry of Health and the government as it relates to reopening the tourism industry is low risk. It’s not high risk because there is some testing being involved.

“But the thing is if we don’t try something and you have to make it attractive enough that while there is a safety mechanism in place, there’s also less stress for persons wanting to travel.

“So I know there is a catch but again as long as those persons who have to come into contact with visitors keep their safeguards in place, their face mask and their social distancing and the regular hand sanitising, etc... with those (measures) in place, we have to start somewhere. You don’t want to stress people too much, but simultaneously you have to make sure your citizens are safe.”

With these new protocols in place, Mr Pinder said officials are hopeful that more visitors will want to travel to The Bahamas, allowing for more resorts to reopen sooner.

Some resorts have said that they may not resume operations until Christmas, while others have indicated that they may not reopen until next year.

Speaking on the matter yesterday, Mr Pinder told The Tribune: “Yes, it’s very good to hear that Atlantis is going to start some opening in December. Also on the drawing board for December is The Pointe. There’s one or two little situations in there by the stroke of the pen so we believe that they too will be ready to open in December.

“Baha Mar I understand is trying to see how best they can open early in the new year. And so, this is good news for persons in the industry and if they can now get back to work, I guess by the end of the first quarter of next year we shall see some sort of normalcy.”