The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

A BAHAMIAN mother wants the government to revisit the age requirements of its mandatory testing policy for people travelling to The Bahamas after reportedly being told by numerous medical facilities abroad that COVID testing for children aged two is not offered.

All travellers, including children aged two and over, are required to produce a negative COVID-19 test within five days of arrival to the country and also when travelling domestically from certain islands, according to the latest amendments to the COVID-19 emergency orders.

The rule also applies to fully vaccinated people, who can either obtain a rapid antigen test or PCR test five days prior to arrival.

Before the new changes were announced, only unvaccinated people who were 12 years and older were mandated to take a PCR test prior to arrival to The Bahamas.

New Providence resident Kia Brown told The Tribune yesterday the new change had left her worried about where she could get her two-year-old son tested.

Mrs Brown said in the last week, she and her family had searched aggressively to locate sites that offered COVID testing for children under the age of three and had even visited at least 50 testing centres in the West Palm Beach, Florida area.

However, the young mother said everywhere they went, the answer was always the same and no one could help.

“Everywhere else, when I applied for testing and put his date of birth and address, they were like no it’s only three-year-olds and there’s no testing for two-year-olds,” Mrs Brown said yesterday.

“Everyone is doing testing three years and up. I even went to Walgreens, CVS, and they’ll tell you no because in making the appointments you’d have to put in your date of birth and instantly when I put in his date of birth, they put in a notice that said your child must be three years old.”

Mrs Brown and her son are scheduled to return home on Friday after spending a month in the US for medical purposes.

Not wanting to miss their flight, Mrs Brown said the family had even contacted Bahamasair officials to see if an exemption would be made for her case. But, she claimed airline workers directed her elsewhere to get help.

“It’s frustrating,” she said. “My husband and I called Bahamasair this morning and they directed us to call the health centre for the visa. They were so inconsiderate and then here it is, up to yesterday morning, their site was still saying two to 11 years old no testing, but when I looked this morning, they updated their website.

“They gave my husband a health visa number and said call them and they may be able to direct us to a place that does it.”

Mrs Brown said she and her family eventually tried their luck in Fort Lauderdale and were finally able to get assistance after one local testing site took exception to her son’s case.

“I’m staying in West Palm (Beach) and I had to drive way downtown to Fort Lauderdale and I went and I told them that I brought my son and he’s not three and they just gave me an exception and I swabbed him myself. This was the only available place that had a booking for today. Everyone else didn’t have any bookings until Wednesday,” she said.

Asked what her next step would have been if she was unable to get her son tested in time, the mother replied: “I couldn’t return until I find some place for my child.”

Describing her experience as a horrible one, Mrs Brown called for the government to reconsider the age requirements for its newly revised travel policy.

“Like come on. You don’t put this on people who have already been off island and already are somewhere else. They need to do their research and see what’s going on around the world,” she said.

In a recent interview with The Tribune, local infectious disease expert Dr Nikkiah Forbes explained that the changes to travel requirements fall in line with international travel protocols.

“The changes also will fall in line with CDC recommendations with international travel. If you read the CDC guidelines, it says international travel is a risk for spreading COVID-19 in light of emerging variant strains,” she said.