During a recent press conference held on the Prime Minister Evelyn Wever Croes and the ATA CEO Ronella Croes and Sharline Koolman of the DVG, provided an update of the current Covid situation in Aruba and also announced new regulations effective August 1, 2021.
As of August 1, 2021, all travelers coming in from the United States require a negative test regardless if the visitor has been vaccinated or not. The United States is considered a high-risk country, just like the Netherlands and Colombia among others. The second change is the Covid insurance for visitors. This will be $15 per visitor for the entire stay in Aruba, while children under the age of 15 are included in their parent’s Covid insurance.
The Prime Minister emphasized that despite positive cases increasing again, the Government will not introduce stricter restrictions for now and urges the community to be cautious.
The Prime Minister said that we should realize that we have a problem in Aruba. We have to sound the alarm immediately but will not shut down Aruba and lock everyone inside their homes. We have to be on alert that the virus is moving around and is here to cause damage. It is in our own hands whether it causes us harm or not. The situation at the hospital is stable. There are currently ten patients hospitalized of which three are in the ICU.
Covid is on the rise again and on Sunday, August 1, 2021, the active cases reached 479.
The cases have more than doubled over the week. This increase in cases is the reason for the Government to go into alert and be concerned. The daily average new cases are over 54 cases and the positivity rate is 25%. This is high compared to last week (July 26) when the active cases were 225.
The situation compared to Curaçao, has changed this week. Last week the new cases in Aruba were not so many, and in Curaçao, they reached a plateau. The situation in Curacao is now stabilizing, however, in Aruba, the number of new cases is still going up.
“This should make us realize that if we do not stop this development soon, we will end up similar to Curaçao with over 600 active cases which we do not need. The Government will not implement restrictions similar to what they did in March last year to protect the community. “We are here to tell the community how important it is to protect themselves and get vaccinated. If you can not or don’t want to get vaccinated please protect yourself. It is your responsibility and your choice. We can not force anyone to vaccinate, but can only encourage the community to protect themselves”.
