By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The government is seeking to implement by November 1 a COVID-19 travel insurance scheme to cover the treatment/evacuation costs for any visitor who falls sick in The Bahamas.

Dionisio D’Aguilar, minister of tourism and aviation, told Tribune Business last night that he had contacted three separate Bahamas-based health insurers over the past two weeks to assess the feasibility, costs and structure of such a plan.

Speaking after Dr Hubert Minnis revealed this element of the Ministry of Tourism’s strategy in his earlier national address, Mr D’Aguilar said the insurance move was designed to address any difficulties posed should visitors test positive for COVID-19 upon either their arrival at the airport or during their stay.

While the experience of other Caribbean countries suggested there were “very, very few cases” of foreign tourists being struck down with COVID-19 after their arrival, the minister said The Bahamas would “encourage” such persons to leave rather than quarantine here for 14 days and become a potential burden to an already-over stretched healthcare system.

With the insurance plan designed to cover related treatment and departure costs, Mr D’Aguilar told this newspaper that the costs associated with paying for and setting up this structure would likely be passed on to visitors via The Bahamas’ health travel visa that all must obtain as a condition of entry to this nation.

“About a couple of weeks ago I reached out to two of the major insurance carriers to investigate this, and last night I reached out to another one to let them go to their reinsurer and see what they can come back with,” Mr D’Aguilar told Tribune Business. “We’d like to hopefully get that in place for November 1.

“This is obviously not something the Government has the experience in, so we have to seek private sector solutions for this problem. The cost of this will probably be included in the travel visa. We’re trying to keep it as reasonable as possible, and hope most visitors - once they’re identified as positive through a vigorous testing regime - will leave the destination rather than quarantine.”

Mr D’Aguilar said the Government had yet to take any decision on whether to adjust the mandatory 14-day quarantine currently imposed on all travellers leaving New Providence for other Bahamian islands, which has been blamed for “dismal” passenger numbers on inter-island flights.

“The Government is still reviewing how it’s going to deal with domestic travel,” he added. “The initial focus was to address foreign visitors seeking to book holidays here over Thanksgiving and Christmas. A lot of visitors are on the cusp of making their travel plans for later this year.

“We were anxious to address the quarantine issue as it was a major stumbling block for visitors wanting to come to The Bahamas or not, and hotels as to whether they open. We will now shift our focus to what protocols will be in place for domestic travel.

“Obviously the problem is Nassau, as the Prime Minister outlined. Nassau is not faring well from a COVID-19 standpoint. How best to address that when people travel to the Family Islands is something we will bring focus to this week.

“The Prime Minister is anxious for it not to spread to other islands. Nassau is the epicentre of COVID-19 spread. We don’t want people in Nassau to go to the Family Islands and replicate what we have here in other islands.”