The new case in St Thomas brings the total confirmed cases in the US Virgin Islands (USVI) to 71 — 39 on St Thomas, 30 on St Croix and two on St John. Photo: VIC

In the Open Doors phase, patrons of restaurants and bars will not need to wear face masks, Governor Albert A. Bryan Jr said at one of his coronavirus press briefings, though employees are still required to. Photo: USVI Gov't

Confirmed by an infographic provided by the Department of Health, the new case in St Thomas brings the total confirmed cases territory-wide to 71 — 39 on St Thomas, 30 on St Croix and two on St John.

The Department of Health is now tracking three active cases, with 62 people having recovered from the deadly disease, while 6 have died — three of whom were family members: a father, mother and son.

In total, the Department of Health- as of Wednesday- had performed 2,048, tests, including some retests, with only two results pending.

USVI reopens for tourism

The recent confirmed cases come as the US Virgin Islands implements its "Open Doors" phase of the coronavirus pandemic, which welcomes leisure travelers to the territory as hotels, AirBnB and other lodging outfits are allowed to accommodate guests through the June 1, 2020 order. 

In the Open Doors phase, patrons of restaurants and bars will not need to wear face masks, Governor Albert A. Bryan Jr said at one of his coronavirus press briefings, though employees are still required to.

All other businesses will still need to require their employees and customers to wear masks, the governor stressed. And all social distancing rules remain in place, including the six-feet-apart guideline.

To prepare for leisure guests, Mr Bryan said heat sensors for fever temperature measurement were being installed at the airports. The idea is to detect passengers who may be sick with Covid-19 and isolating those individuals to minimise spread of the deadly pathogen.

Restrictions

The following restrictions remain in place in the USVI:

• Employees are required to wear facial coverings at all times. Governor Bryan told the Consortium last week that while patrons are not required to wear the masks at the restaurants and bars, "it is strongly recommended."
• Establishments must provide “sanitization stations” for customers and employees.
• Restaurants and bars can only operate at half of Fire Marshal-approved seating capacity, or host a maximum of 50 customers. “That is 50 percent of what the Fire Marshal said you can put in there or 50 customers — whichever one is less,” Mr Bryan said.
• Tables must be placed at least six feet apart. 
• Establishments cannot cater to parties larger than six people. Larger groups can be split up among multiple tables that are properly spaced apart.
• Bar stools must be “spaced out as much as possible. … We know that’s going to be difficult, but we are encouraging you to do that.”