PHILIPSBURG – 24 Covid infections with the British variant have been found on St. Maarten. The government is calling on all residents to vaccinate against corona. In addition, all catering establishments must close at midnight from today.
Until now, the British variant had only been found on the French part of the island. The variant had already been found on Aruba, Curaçao and Bonaire. That is why the government of Sint Maarten announced earlier this month that it would no longer allow passengers from those islands.
Only some of the people with whom the British variant has now been discovered have recently traveled to Aruba and Curaçao. The government therefore thinks that several local infections have already taken place.
Now that the British variant has been found, the injection capacity has been expanded to a thousand injections per day. In addition, residents are even more urged to register.
Last Friday, the Netherlands sent more than 15,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine. That was already the third shipment of vaccines from the Netherlands. The goal is to fully vaccinate 34,000 people. In St. Maarten, more than 10,000 people have already received their first injection, of whom 5,000 have also had the second dose.
In addition, the government decides that all nightlife businesses must close at midnight from today. Earlier that was already at four in the morning. Sint-Maarten hopes to be able to scrap this temporary measure in two weeks.
This was announced last week by Minister Ludmilla de Weever of Tourism and Economy. The measure is part of the plan to minimize a further outbreak. “We don’t have enough resources to counter a major outbreak of the British variety – as we see it on our sister islands -” said De Weever
