This boom was helped by the fact that, since March 1, all people over the age of 16 have been eligible to receive the vaccine in the Virgin Islands – so tourists don’t even have to worry about cutting the queue. The territory accommodates about 100 walk-ins per day as well. “Nowhere else in the U.S. can you just go in and get the vaccine, anyone over 16,” Bryan said on Monday. On March 1, the islands also opened two federally supported community vaccination centers in St. Thomas and St. Croix.
US travelers also face less bureaucracy when visiting the US Virgin Islands compared to other Caribbean destinations. If they have a negative coronavirus test within five days of departure, or a positive antibody test obtained within four months, they do not need to be quarantined upon arrival. Travelers to Jamaica and Barbados, by contrast, are asked to quarantine anyway. And US travelers are not allowed to visit the Cayman Islands unless they meet the strict eligibility criteria.
Dr. Hunte-Ceasar said that, at this point, the Department of Health did not consider vaccine tourism to be a problem. “We definitely want to ensure that local residents are vaccinated,” she said. But “we did not have any shortages serving both populations”. The Virgin Islands currently has 27,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, 18,900 doses of the Modern vaccine and 600 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine available, said Monife Stout, director of immunization for the department.
Noreen Michael, a scientist at the University of the Virgin Islands who studies health disparities, agrees that it is crucial to ensure that vaccines are available to residents who want them, but said he saw no evidence to suggest that tourists are getting vaccines from residents who want them. “On the public health side, it’s an advantage,” she said. “On the equity side, I don’t see this as a significant problem.”
Perhaps, too, vaccine tourism can be used as a force for good – to guarantee doses for marginalized groups in other regions. Although the Virgin Islands provide free Covid-19 vaccines, the islands could charge tourists for their vaccines, and the funds could be used to send vaccines to regions that need them, said Felicia Knaul, international health economist at the University of Miami . “Can we send these vaccines to Jamaica, or to the Dominican Republic or Haiti?” she asked. “Once you have overcome the main aspects of welfare and human rights, if you can use this funding to pay for people who now have no access, I think it is worth thinking about.”
For now, health officials are focused on ways to reduce vaccine hesitation in the territory. “People access disinformation and perpetuate lies and things that are harmful,” Hunte-Ceasar told a news conference last week. As a result, the islands have experienced a sudden increase in cases and hospitalizations that, she said, cause “chest pain and heartburn every night”. Although the hesitation of the vaccine appears to be easing, residents will need to start adopting it widely if the islands are to meet their goal of vaccinating 50,000 inhabitants of the Virgin Islands by July 1.
Meanwhile, visitors from the continental United States will continue to enjoy the extra doses. Some also stayed longer than they planned – and even considered moving to the islands forever.
“I started to fall in love with the culture of St. Croix,” said Hemal Trivedi, a documentary filmmaker who lives in Weehawken, NJ, and was vaccinated in St. Croix in February. “Near the end of the trip, we were really looking for a place to buy.”