An Inside Look at the British Virgin Islands Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic Claire Shefchik
On any given weekday during the tourist season, White Bay on Jost van Dyke is ground zero for everything that’s boozy and buzzy about the British Virgin Islands. Charter catamarans are often jammed into rows like tailgaters in front of the legendary Soggy Dollar Bar, home of the Painkiller cocktail, and rafters are draped with college football pennants, courtesy of BVI’s backslapping neighbor to the (far) north.
Not today.
I’d seen White Bay empty like this once before, shortly after Hurricane Irma whipped through, leveling nearly everything on the beach. At the time, I had just moved to the islands. But now, I could see that with the borders closed for the past nine months, even little Jost now handsomely rebuilt was just another tourist outpost struggling to stay under COVID’s radar by shutting tourists out.