PHILIPSBURG, Sint Maarten — On Wednesday May 20, the second repatriation charter flight brought home SZV insured patients who have completed their medical treatments abroad and are able to continue follow-up treatment on Sint Maarten. A total of 41 SZV insured patients and their companions returned home from Curaçao and Colombia (Bogota, Cali and Barranquilla). The first repatriation charter flight, carrying SZV insured from the Dominican Republic landed last week at the Princess Juliana International Airport. The returning patients must adhere to the quarantine regulations.
“It’s a comfort to know that our patients and their companions returned safely back on Sint Maarten soil. We would have liked to see our clients return home sooner, however it has been a great challenge to navigate the COVID-19 international health restrictions and travel bans. We needed to be sure that we could get them back home with the proper health regulations in place to securing their safety during travel and back at home.” Mr. Reginald Willemsberg, SZV Chief Operations Officer SZV, together with local and international health care providers took the necessary measures to ensure that the qualifying patients who returned home, were in good enough health to travel and could continue their follow-up treatment on Sint Maarten. The returning patients and care takers had been asked to assess their home situation with their family in order to make the necessary preparations for quarantine once back on Sint Maarten.
The patients were thankful for the charter flight and extremely happy to be back home. SZV is pleased to announce that after a long preparation phase, the charter flight was successfully executed.
On board the charter flight of May 20, were also 4 non-SZV medical referrals passengers returning to Sint Maarten. As a humanitarian effort, the departing charter flight from Sint Maarten, was made available for Colombian residents in Sint Maarten to return to Colombia. The repatriation charter flight was made possible in collaboration with the Government of Sint Maarten, the Foreign Affairs department, the Consul Generals in Curaçao and San Juan, Puerto Rico and the Dutch Embassy Representative in Colombia.
Photo captions:
- Passengers embarking charter flight to return to Sint Maarten
- Passengers embarking charter flight with additional sanitization measures
- SZV insured in mandatory protective wear before boarding charter flight to Sint Maarten
