TCI News
Turks & Caicos Islander demands better for COVID patients; no food or water for days
#Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands – August 6, 2020 — At least two patients under government quarantine have reached out to say they are not being fed, have no drinking water and have no idea when they will be able to leave the facility, despite having spent nearly three weeks in isolation.
A 60-year-old Haitian woman and a 53-year- old Haitian man are being held at the Beach House and are angered and confused by the ill-treatment they are receiving while in the care of the Turks and Caicos Ministry of Health.
Magnetic Media has reached out to the Ministry of Health about the complaint and some efforts are being made to try and rectify the situation.
Still it is outrageous to those who know the 60-year old woman, a devout church member and legal work permit holder that the older lady is forced to stay put and had not received any meals for over two days.
“We need to treat people better than this. This is just wrong! How could you hold people at the hotel and not feed them for days? Ministry of Health needs to treat people better than this. Even for a dog tied under a tree in your yard, you would make sure it had food and water,” said Bloneva Greene, friend of the woman who brought the matter to our attention.
We will use the COVID patient’s middle name – Simone – in the story, for the sake of privacy.
Simone confirmed, via telephone, that she has received the food left with the security officer by her friend. Simone added that she has shared some of the meal with the 53-year-old man also being held at the Beach House, which is a quarantine facility as he too was desperately hungry.
The pair, housed in separate living quarters, had not eaten in two days. Both asked Mrs. Greene for drinking water.
It was also disturbing to hear Simone’s comment on how her meals were served before they stopped coming altogether.
“They left de food on de ground outside the door.”
The man explained he suffers from “sugar” which means he is diabetic. The man also said he has high blood pressure and kidney problems.
“I don’t get nuttin. You put me one place, no water, no food nutting. But you trying to kill me. Send me home, I will stay. I watch TV that’s it. Nobody tell me nuttin every night. One man come and put something in my nose. I tell man, excuse me sir, you come here, you don’t give me food, you don’t give me nutting, you tell me I get 19 Covid. I gat sugar, I gat pressure and I get 19 Covid, I supposed to die? You put me here, for what?!”
For the sake of anonymity, we will use the surname of the man, which is Jean.
Mr. Jean said he has already spent 14-days at hospital after testing positive for COVID-19 and now, in government quarantine he finds the treatment is inhumane.
We are also informed that both have had subsequent coronavirus PCR tests; Mr. Jean and Simone say they were each tested twice.
“I really feel for this man too because he is telling me that the Guyanese guy who came to swab him actually said, ‘sick people don’t eat food’. Come on, how can you tell someone with underlying health conditions who has COVID-19 something like that? Of course he needs food, he needs nutrition,” fumed Mrs. Greene.
Simone has been at Beach House since Saturday and had a doctor visit on Tuesday. In that phone call, Simone shared that she told the doctor she was hungry, had not eaten in days and asked when she would be released from the quarantine facility.
The Doctor informed that there would be a phone call to say when she was free to leave, presented Simone with documents which detailed the various tests and check-ups and gave her a vitamin regimen.
On a sticky note, it was scribbled that Simone ought to have blood work completed in two months.
The physician did not communicate the meaning of the pages and pages of medical information; leaving Simone at a loss about her state of health. The doctor also had no suggestions about what 60-year-old, Simone should do for food.
Ministry of Health continues to look into the situation; it was said to Magnetic Media only moments ago by TCI Public Health that those in quarantine should have received breakfast this morning.
Almost two million visitors recorded in 2025
PROVIDENCIALES, TURKS AND CAICOS ISLANDS – The Turks and Caicos Islands saw an increase in stayover arrivals in December, seven percent higher than the corresponding period in 2024.
Preliminary data suggests that stay over arrivals by air for the month of December was 66,427 in comparison to 62,610 in December 2024.
From January to December 2025, preliminary visitor arrival numbers totalled 640,754; on par with the number recorded for the same period of 2024.
Stay Over Arrivals YTD December 2024/2025
The first quarter of the calendar year attracted the largest number of arrivals with visitor arrivals three percent higher than the first quarter of 2024. Reduced airlift from the United Kingdom and the United States, most notably the Virgin Atlantic and JetBlue services, was however felt from the second quarter (April to June). As a result, visitor arrivals dropped three percent in the second quarter.
By the third quarter of this year (July to September), geopolitical and economic conditions in the key source markets, namely the United States, led to further contraction of arrivals. In the last quarter of 2025, arrivals were impacted in October due to the passage of Hurricane Melissa but additional airlift from the USA and Canada resulted in an increase in arrivals in November and December.
Mr. Paul Pennicook, Interim CEO Consultant of Experience Turks and Caicos, said December’s increase in stayover arrivals is an encouraging indicator of the sustained interest in the Turks and Caicos Islands as a premier destination.
“While we note and continue to monitor geopolitical shifts that affect us, Experience Turks and Caicos is focused on increasing marketing initiatives in our primary source markets. We have spent the last two years investing in groundwork such as crucial travel advisor training to assist them in selling the destination more effectively. In the next fiscal, we will be building on those initiatives with co-op activities with partners as well as out of home advertising to increase visitation to our destination,” he said.
In Cruise, the preliminary count of passenger arrivals for the month of December 2025 was 129,346, a 22 percent increase over last December. This growth follows the berthing of 11 additional ships in Grand Turk this month.
From January to December, the cruise sector continued to outperform the same period last year, as the 1.3 million total cruise passengers recorded, marks a five percent Year-on-Year increase. 
The cruise sector experienced significant growth in the first quarter of 2025, with passenger arrivals surpassing last quarter by 53 percent. In the second and third quarter however, several cruise lines adjusted their itineraries as vessels were pulled from the fleet or from the Caribbean region, which resulted in fewer passengers.
Arrivals dropped seven percent and 10 percent in the second and third quarters, respectively. Double digit growth was recorded in the last two months of Quarter 4. This growth however, was not sufficient to outweigh the drop in arrivals experienced in October, following the cancellation of cruise calls due to the passage of Hurricane Melissa. Despite the late-quarter rebound, arrivals for the final quarter of 2025 closed six percent below the same period in 2024.
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Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands – Wednesday, 11 February 2026: The Informal Settlements Unit (ISU) coordinated a multi-agency enforcement operation on Thursday, 29 January 2026, led by the Planning Department, with support from the Crown Land
Unit, the Turks and Caicos Islands Border Force, and security provided by the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force. The operation, carried out at three different locations in Providenciales, formed part of ongoing government efforts to address unauthorised development and illegal occupation of land in accordance with governing legislation.
The operation commenced in Blue Hills, where five Section 58 Enforcement Notices were issued on unauthorised structures identified on Block and Parcel 60502/48.
Enforcement activity then moved to a second location off the Leeward Highway near Caicos Lodge, where six Section 58 Enforcement Notices were issued on additional unauthorised structures on Block and Parcel 60802/66.
The final phase of the operation took place in The Bight, where three unauthorised structures were removed, with all debris cleared from the site in keeping with established safety and environmental protocols.
The Informal Settlements Unit remains committed to working alongside its partner agencies to support lawful development, protect public and private land, and ensure that planning regulations are enforced in a coordinated and transparent manner across the Turks and Caicos Islands. Similar joint operations will continue as part of the Government’s wider strategy to address unauthorised development and informal settlement activity.
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