Holland-based Guyanese, June Ann Gravesande has aborted travel plans to Guyana after testing positive for COVID-19 in Trinidad and Tobago where she had been stranded since Saturday.
Gravesande, who was in transit in the twin-island republic was detained on Saturday by immigration officers after she did not meet the vaccination requirements to enter the country. Guyanese authorities later moved to allow her to enter this country with only one vaccine but she then tested positive for the virus.
Speaking with Stabroek News yesterday morning from her hotel room in Trinidad, Gravesande said that she was about to check in for her flight en route to Guyana on Monday when she was informed by the travel agent that her PCR test was positive.
“I received the letter today (Monday) from the COVID task force of Guyana saying they will let me in the country with one dose of the vaccine…I spoke to someone from Guyana’s Foreign Ministry who said I was granted the exemption and all the details, including the flight to Guyana were already confirmed,” she told the Trinidad Guardian on Monday.
According to Gravesande, with the positive result she has decided to abort her travel plans here and return to her home in Holland after receiving clearance from the Trinidad health authorities.
“It makes no sense I come to Guyana anymore. The 14 days quarantine will end on February 6th and I am schedule to leave Guyana on the 10th and I have to come back through Trinidad. I don’t want that. I have accepted the fact that I cannot go and I told my sisters to go ahead with the funeral on Saturday. It will be hard but I will just have to look at the live stream alone with my daughter in the hotel room,” she lamented.
Having contracted COVID-19 once before in 2020 in her home city in Holland she was not required to take the customary two jabs of vaccine as the country regards a person who already has the antibodies for COVID and one jab as fully vaccinated.
Gravesande and her daughter Daisy Gravesande arrived in Trinidad on Saturday on a KLM flight and were expected to board a Caribbean Airlines flight to Guyana. Her mother and nephew were granted approval to travel after satisfying health authorities on their vaccinations.
According to Gravesande, after the death of her father, she “scrambled” to make travel arrangements but didn’t think her vaccination status would have affected her.
“They say fully vaccinated and my travel agent say fully vaccinated so I went with what Holland is saying as fully vaccinated but they were not accepting that here. If I was not fully vaccinated I could not have left Holland or even boarded the KLM flight,” Gravesande noted.
The woman believes that she contracted COVID somewhere between travelling from Holland and being accommodated at the facility in Trinidad and Tobago.
She noted that the only symptom she has experienced is a mild headache while her daughter is negative.
“At the facility we didn’t have anything to sanitise with just some paper towels. You cannot wipe off any bacteria with that. When food is delivered we don’t know how many persons it goes to before getting to us,” she explained.
At present, she and her daughter are currently in quarantine at a hotel at her expense.
“I am at a much better place now. The rooms are clean and neat. I can see outside it is so comfortable,” she said. She had previously highlighted the unhygienic conditions in which she was forced to stay after being prevented from boarding the Carib-bean Airlines flight to Guyana.
The woman lamented that after she was informed she was a positive for COVID, authorities took her and her daughter to a room. There she had to wait on transportation to go to the hotel. The woman said she waited for close to six hours before being moved from the room without any meals.
“It was a horrible experience. It is like these Trinidadians don’t have no heart. We waited there for six hours and nobody didn’t really pay attention that we didn’t eat. No me so much but my daughter. She was crying and fussing for food but I didn’t had what she wanted because I catered that I would have been travelling. When they pick us up around 12, I asked the driver if we will be able to get food at the hotel, he said yes. But when we got to the hotel, the restaurant was closed,” she related.
According to her, she had to mix her daughter’s porridge with just water and feed her as there was nothing else she could have done.
“I don’t want to hear the name Trinidad and Tobago anymore because I will just keep remembering this situation. Like from the time I touch down here it was crossed. These people have no empathy on the situation”, she lamented.
The woman however praised her Guyanese brothers and sisters for the love and support they have showed to her throughout the period.
“Like as much as I am sad that I can’t be there for my father’s funeral I am so happy still. I am happy and proud to be Guyanese in this moment. So many Guyanese people have tried to help me, many went out of their way and they didn’t even know me and I am so happy and thankful for them. The Guyanese consulate even reached out to me and it feels really great,” she said.
