St. Maarten Medical Center (SMMC) relaxing its visitation policy (see related story) following White and Yellow Cross Care Foundation (WYCCF) is one of many indications that the COVID-19 nightmare which began locally in March 2020 finally seems just about over. The French-side face mask requirement and vaccination pass will be dropped from Monday and for the Dutch side it is a day later, while their respective business closure hours had earlier been extended back to 2:00am and 3:00am.
Since the start of this month fully-vaccinated passengers at least two weeks prior no longer need negative test results when arriving at Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIA) and soon this will apply to everyone. That is good news for the destination and its tourism economy, although near the end of a make-it-or-break-it traditional high season to many.
These have been a tough two years, no doubt, with the unprecedented pandemic coming as the island’s recovery from the devastating passage of Category 5 Hurricane Irma in September 2017 was still ongoing. Nevertheless, there is reason to be thankful that the community weathered both these natural and man-made storms.
People often tend to think things are harder for them than for others. However, “the grass is always greener on the other side” as the saying goes and recent developments in Ukraine – for example – should serve as reminder that it can certainly get far worse.
Take differences even within the Dutch Caribbean: Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao have rarely been threatened by tropical cyclones, but due to the crisis in neighbouring Venezuela and sanctions against that country their once-thriving oil industries fell apart and they were faced with a wave of migrants coming by boat from South America.
There will always be challenges, important is to overcome them as “The Friendly Island” was again able to do. And let’s face it, nobody said life would be easy.
