No Coronavirus here yet, hopefully it stays that way

[Kate B]

Hi everyone,

Lots of people emailing me to ask about our status, so far we have no reported cases of the virus here on Bonaire. Aruba has 2 cases, and we just heard yesterday that Curaçao had its first case, a Dutch tourist who flew in the day before and then felt sick. They quarantined him quickly, so hopefully it will minimize spread.

Most of the major cruise lines have stopped sailing, so we anticipate little to no cruise traffic here, which should further reduce the risk.

Planes still arriving and departing, and activities going on as usual. Our supermarkets are always subject to container deliveries, which can be delayed by weather, etc. so sometimes we run out of an item temporarily, but there is plenty of food.

There were more people than usual at van den tweel supermarket yesterday, but they didn’t appear to be buying large amounts. I think it was more that we had a container delay last week and they wanted to make sure they shopped in case we had another one. But our shelves are full of toilet paper, disinfectants and the things stores in other countries are out of.

Everyone is aware of the pandemic and washing our hands more frequently, but life looks the same here so far.

Ian and I feel very fortunate to be here during this time, but our hearts go out to others who are in affected areas. We wish everyone good health, and an end to this virus soon.

[Kate B]

Update: as of this morning, the Dutch government has banned all planes from Europe and all cruise lines from coming to Bonaire until March 30th. Most cruise lines have done their own 30 day ban from sailing, which should extend it until Mid April.

[randl]

Thanks, Kate. This is helpful information.

randl

[Cornhusker]

Kate great update for everyone---just finished diving and was informed KLM flying empty planes as scheduled to pick up departures only--same for Delta, American and United. Empty planes only and same for cruise lines and now also boat travel between Bonaire-Curacao-Aruba excluding food and building materials or so I was told. Dive Friends Bonaire has put out special tubs with some blended disinfectant to put in regs, masks and wash hands. Been here 6-weeks with 2 left.

Bonaire (I was told) has no testing kits or other means to verify any virus but will do the best they can-I feel safe and with 2-weeks to go just waiting to hear from our airline. Royce &Mary

[Canuck52]

Wow

Interesting and somewhat scary times. We are back in Canada, we came back here a week or so ago. We were scheduled to fly over to Germany this weekend to meet our new sailboat and do its first sea trials out in the Baltic, before it is being shipped down to us in Bonaire. We cancelled that trip at the very last moment fearing we could get stuck in Germany. Now it looks like we may be stuck in Canada, which being home is probably the best place to get ‘stuck’. But our problem now might be our new 45’ boat is scheduled to arrive in Bonaire in mid April. The wife (who is an ATP Pilot) looked up the official NOTAM (Notice To Air Men), issued a few hours ago by the Dutch Authorities, it does not list flights from the US, but does list Europe and other some countries as being not allowed in with passengers. Perhaps things have changed in the few hours since the NOTAM she read was issued.

Stay Safe

[Kate B]

Thanks, Randl. Friends flew in on a flight from the US today so I don’t think there is requirement for flights from the US to come in empty. I couldn’t find it in any of the Dutch official sources. Our little island has such an active rumor mill that I always check to see if I can find something in print. Otherwise it’s like a game of telephone sometimes, remember that game when we were kids? 😎

The hospital here says (yup, in print) that they have rooms set aside for treatment and tests if it becomes necessary. Don’t know if that means they have the tests yet.

All the best,

[Canuck52]

Thank you for the update Kate. I did see all the normal US flights arrive at BON today, on the online Flight Trackers. Nice to know they are still carrying people.

We hope to be booking our return flights soon, still some Tax stuff we have to clean up here first. I guess all we can do is to just keep on top of any changes and try and stay as safe as possible wherever we might all be. We are staying at home as much as we can now, only going out to shop just for food and only when absolutely needed. All large public gatherings have been banned/cancelled in pretty much all of Canada, and I do suspect we might go into some full scale emergency ‘lock-downs’ if things progress here like they are doing in a lot of Europe.