THE US VIRGIN ISLANDS DURING COVID-19

Past and future visitors have been thinking about what life has been like in St. Thomas and St. John during the COVID-19 pandemic. In many ways, it hasn’t been very different from other parts of the world. Since mid-March, we have gone through a series of precautionary regulations that range from beach and business closures to face mask enforcement. As of May 24, 2020, we can tell you that beaches are open, uncrowded, and very clean. Restaurants on St. Thomas offer carry-out, and many other non-essential services have recently reopened.

Grocery stores have the same offerings as usual, and all workers and customers are required to wear PPE.

At this point, we have seen fewer than 70 positive test results for all three islands (with no new cases in the past two weeks), over 1,000 people have been tested, and nearly all of those infected have recovered. At this time, hotels can take reservations from local residents, and cruise ship arrivals are on hold through June, 2020. As a US Territory, we have fared rather well due to our strict isolation from the mainland, and the number of cases has slowed considerably. For updated information, visit and subscribe to updates from VITEMA.