A couple endured a “nightmare” honeymoon in Barbados after the bride tested positive for Covid-19 and had to spend 10 days in a “jail-like” quarantine facility.
Amy, 27, and Alberto, 33, from Chiswick got married in Ireland before travelling to the Caribbean island nation three days later.
They had both tested negative for coronavirus before their flight, but were required to take a second test on arrival. The next day, Amy received a positive result, necessitating 10 days of self-isolation.
“She was so scared and was crying, it was horrible,” Alberto told the Daily Mail. “I stayed on the phone with her all night because she was so worried.”
He added that the facility had no toilet paper or pillows, and alleged that Amy was forced to share a room with six others, while there were no locks on the doors.
“The way they handled things was awful and the facility is inhumane,” he claimed. “It's more like a jail. She says it feels like being in a zombie movie.”
However, other residents were “nice to her” and they all played games, helping lift the quarantinees’ spirits.
As soon as they could, the newlyweds paid for Amy to transfer to the country’s only private quarantine facility, at a cost of $300 (£223) a night.
Amy will need to test negative twice, at a cost of $150 (£111) per test, before she can be released from isolation.
The couple have now run through all the money they were given as wedding presents, and have used up all their annual leave on what Alberto described as a “nightmare” honeymoon.
The UK’s Foreign Office says this of Barbados’s quarantine facilities: “Conditions at the government quarantine facilities are generally basic and not necessarily equivalent to a tourist hotel with the associated services.”
Visitors must self-isolate at a government facility for at least 24 hours before being able to request a transfer.
