The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

Grand Bahama businesses want to know who should pay for the weekly testing of employees who do not take the COVID-19 vaccine, as suggested by the prime minister.

Greg Langstaff, the Grand Bahama Brewing Company’s proprietor, told Tribune Business that the government should pay if it was going to mandate that employers require workers to either become fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or take weekly tests to confirm they are virus free.

Mr Langstaff said: “In the big scheme of things, I can’t disagree. I agree with the prime minister, we certainly need to get everybody in the country. But that’s a pretty hard penalty on a business to ask them to test all their people once a week when he won’t test all of his people.”

He was responding to remarks made by Dr Hubert Minnis when he urged business owners on Grand Bahama to encourage their employees to vaccinate against COVID-19 or risk putting their businesses in jeopardy. Dr Minnis also told business owners to require employees to take a weekly RT-PCR COVID-19 test if they decline to take the vaccine.

An RT-PCR test can cost between $150 to $200 depending on where persons take it. “If he wants to enforce something like that, then he had better cough up a bunch of free tests and that would make it great,” Mr Langstaff added.

He said he is already aware of several Grand Bahama businesses that are asking employees to test weekly for COVID-19, but those firms are in the tourism industry and come into frequent contact with visitors.

Brent Collins, chief executive of Freeport-based Power Equipment Ltd, said none of his employees are interested in taking the vaccine. As for weekly testing, he added: “No. I wonder who is going to pay for taking all of those tests?

“I know of several people that took RT-PCR tests, and they were false positives after taking a second test directly afterwards. I don’t know what the deal is with that, but weekly testing is not feasible.

“They are asking Grand Bahamians to spend more money, and those tests are anywhere from $100 to $120. To take a second test to confirm your COVID-19 status is a lot of money. Some of these guys I know have spent $600 or $800 just to prove they didn’t have it.”

James Rolle, Dolly Madison Homecentre’s general manager, said that while weekly testing or COVID-19 vaccinations are “doable”, the Prime Minister is just “planting a thought in the minds of employers”.

He added: “I think there may be some legal buffering to that, because in one breath you’re telling the Bahamian public that vaccinations are not mandatory, but the next day you’re telling another factor of the society that you must insist that your employees take the vaccination.”

Questioning the logic of giving employees an either/or option on vaccinations or weekly testing, Mr Rolle said: “What the prime minister is saying is that if all of your employees are vaccinated, even if somebody comes into your business who is positive, or if any of your employees test positive, the business doesn’t have to close down.

“But it still does not remove the fact that, even if all of your employees are vaccinated and someone who comes into your store tests positive, or even if a member of your staff is positive, then that means the viral infection is present for God knows how long, so somebody else can come into the store and still contract the virus.”