We need to stop reinventing the wheel and being too eager to make rules. Barbados used the same criteria and never closed its' borders which allowed longer stay tourists and residents to enter the country.

The government needs to be more truthful. Experience dictates the looming weekend lockdown is just the beginning of a long lockdown period if we are to get COVID back under control.

To be clear, "stopping travel" was not the issue. Keeping the borders closed to the U.S. was the overwhelming decision the vast majority agreed as the right course of action. How they couldn't see that is beyond comprehension.

Had we allowed travel to Canada, EU, and the U.K., we might have had a constant trickle of tourists.

It is not entirely fair to blame Bahamians for traveling and transmitting the disease. The government was fully aware of the high level of infection in Florida and equally aware that Floridians were not practicing masks wearing and social distancing. Why would the government not expect Bahamians to also become infected in such an environment?

Secondly, why would the government allow travel to an area known to have an out of control highly contagious pathogen and not require them to be tested upon return? And, with such porous borders, why would the government allow private aircraft and boats into the Bahamas from Florida?

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Hindsight is always 20/20. Pointing fingers, casting blame, bitching, whining, armchair quarterbacking, is not productive and will never get us anywhere!
Asking people to self-quarantine is a total non-starter.

People need to stop the infantile stupidity and be adult enough to analyze what went wrong, acknowledge missteps and move forward for the betterment of our country and people.

Alternatively, we can join the fantasy world of uncle Donald Trump with the ridiculous asinine notion that "virus or no virus we must open the economy". Clearly the rapid spread of the coronavirus is now leading them back to the forced total shut down of Los Angeles, Texas, Florida, and now several other states.

Opening the borders to the U.S. was ill-advised, had a highly predictable outcome and a very, very, bad move, requiring 10-day COVID free tests for visitor entry was and remains another bad move, especially when Barbados and other jurisdictions were already leading the way demanding negative test with-in 72 hours of arrival, not requiring a test for returning residents traveling to the U.S. for less than 72 hours was the absolute worse move possible!

Closing liquor stores during the lockdown period then simultaneously opening liquor stores, bars and clubs were not thought through. Alcohol sales should never have been prohibited to start with, it never worked before legalization and will never work! However, since they screwed that up, alcohol sales should have been a phased opening starting with liquor store roadside sales first, followed by bars and clubs weeks later to allow people to "catch up" in a controlled fashion.

The initial shutdown was only a dress rehearsal to what we now have to deal with. This is the "real deal". Unfortunately, if PM Minnis doesn't shut down the entire country immediately and get a firm handle on the obvious community spread of this virus, we will end up like Florida, Texas, and California in very short order!

We need to come to the realization that COVID-19 is an unforgiving virus that does not allow coexisting working economies regardless of what the idiot geniuses mirroring the all-powerful, "great orange wizard" in the White House, uncle Donald Trump says.

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Hindsight is always 20/20. Pointing fingers, casting blame, bitching, whining, armchair quarterbacking, is not productive and will never get us anywhere!
Asking people to self-quarantine is a total non-starter.

People need to stop the infantile stupidity and be adult enough to analyze what went wrong, acknowledge missteps and move forward for the betterment of our country and people.

Alternatively, we can join the fantasy world of uncle Donald Trump with the ridiculous asinine notion that "virus or no virus we must open the economy". Clearly the rapid spread of the coronavirus is now leading them back to the forced total shut down of Los Angeles, Texas, Florida, and now several other states.

Opening the borders to the U.S. was ill-advised, had a highly predictable outcome and a very, very, bad move, requiring 10-day COVID free tests for visitor entry was and remains another bad move, especially when Barbados and other jurisdictions were already leading the way demanding negative test with-in 72 hours of arrival, not requiring a test for returning residents traveling to the U.S. for less than 72 hours was **the absolute** worse move possible!

Closing liquor stores during the lockdown period then simultaneously opening liquor stores, bars and clubs were not thought through. Alcohol sales should never have been prohibited to start with, it never worked before legalization and will never work! However, since they screwed that up, alcohol sales should have been a phased opening starting with liquor store roadside sales first, followed by bars and clubs weeks later to allow people to "catch up" in a controlled fashion.

The initial shutdown was only a dress rehearsal to what we now have to deal with. This is the "real deal". Unfortunately, if PM Minnis doesn't shut down the entire country immediately and get a firm handle on the obvious community spread of this virus, we will end up like Florida, Texas, and California in very short order!

We need to come to the realization that COVID-19 is an unforgiving virus that does not allow coexisting working economies regardless of what the idiot geniuses mirroring the all-powerful, "great orange wizard" in the White House, uncle Donald Trump says.

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, we will see the "true" extent of the bad move opening to U.S. outbreak around the 10th of August.

All this thanks to uncle Donald Trump! I shudder to think of the name calling in this situation had he been a black president.

@ ISpeakFacts....We were also totally dismayed and disappointed at the D-educated patrons in Sandyport and other "supposed upscale" bars and restaurants in the western district that has been partying non-stop without wearing any sort of mask or practicing any social distancing. Then you factor in the U.S. tourist that refuses to wear masks in their own country and certainly will not wear one in what he feels is a banana republic naturally gravitate to these places out west, and the "lighter-skinned" and culturally confused Bahamians doing everything possible to be accepted by the western crowd, and you have the perfect storm for widespread virus transmission.

That's another problem, Americans could be seen walking about the island without masks everywhere. In fact, I have yet to see one wearing a mask!

If they wouldn't wear masks in the U.S., why would we think they would wear masks in what they consider to be a lowly banana republic?

Opening our borders to the USA was an easily avoidable colossal blunder, especially with Canada and the EU examples of keeping theirs closed, and even New York had mandatory quarantine rules for Floridians.

This self inflicted "second wave" will be much larger than the first simpley due to the fact the origin is much more highly contaminated resulting in higher volume of transfers per capita
By infectious carriers, which also translates to the much higher community spread we see already.

We are most likely headed back into lockdown by mid August. A lot of people are going to suffer all over again even worse this round, and for what, a few tourism dollars?

Experimenting with opening to the U.S. was a bad call, and undoubtedly will be much more expensive than it could ever have been worth!

Cable Beach is also out.