Governor John Rankin chaired a Cabinet meeting on April 21 at the Financial Services Commission’s conference room in Pasea. All members were present. During the meeting, the Cabinet took the following actions, according to a summary provided by the Cabinet Office.

1. Decided to grant pioneer status to ATLO (BVI) Inc. in accordance with Section 3 of the Pioneer Services and Enterprises Ordinance (Cap. 297), First Schedule, Paragraph (a)(xxiv), to engage in the service of “Provision of Veterinary Clinic Services” for a period of 10 years effective April 1, 2021.

2. Endorsed that Villa Cornucopia Ltd. be granted a hotel aid licence by the minister for a period of three years with effect from May 1, 2021 pursuant to Section 3 of the Hotel Aid Ordinance (Cap. 290).

3. Noted and endorsed the appointments of the following members of the Virgin Islands Recovery and Development Agency board, in accordance with section 9(1) of the Virgin Islands Recovery and Development Act, for a period of three years with effect from May 1, 2021: Ronnie Skelton, chairman; Jerry Samuel, deputy chairman; Shea Alexander, sister island representative; Marquese Maduro, member between the age of 18 and 35; and, jointly with the governor, selected Michael Fay and approved him as the civil society representative and John Cline as the private sector representative.

4. Decided that the attorney general, in her capacity as commissioner under the Law Revision Act, 2014 prepare and publish, as interim revised enactments, revisions of all the enactments in force in the Virgin Islands, including statutory instruments; decided that the tender process be waived for the engagement of the Regional Law Revision Centre in Anguilla to provide electronic consolidation, formatting, law revision, proofreading and related services for the revision of the laws of the VI at the rate of no more than $25 per page and at a cap of $250,000 per annum and:

a. agreed that the public would benefit from the early revision and publication of the enactments, including the statutory instruments, and directed that any revised edition or revised enactment of the territory’s laws may be distributed to the public via any one or more online web portals approved in writing by the attorney general; and

b. noted the Attorney General’s Chambers’ proposal for an online portal to host the territory’s laws.

5. Received the Health Emergency Operations Centre Report titled “Border entry protocols in light of vaccination” and agreed the following changes to the existing border requirements, which are to be reviewed fortnightly:

i. effective May 15, 2021, fully vaccinated people travelling from overseas will be required to take a PCR Covid-19 test within five days before travel, provide satisfactory evidence of being fully vaccinated, take a PCR test upon arrival (day zero), and quarantine until a negative test result is received from the BVI Health Services Authority; and

ii. effective May 15, 2021, fully vaccinated people who have been present in the VI for a period of more than 14 consecutive days and who travel to the United States VI, St. Martin or Puerto Rico, for a period not longer than 24 hours, are exempted from quarantine and the Covid-19 test upon re-entering the territory, but would be required to take the PCR test seven days after returning to the territory.

6. Approved two non-belongers land holding licence applications.

This information was provided in a summary Gazetted on April 29.