Inter-Island Communications News Brief – November 18, 2020

People seeking to visit Bermuda in the future will need to meet a new, more rigorous COVID-19 test threshold to get on the island to ensure we’re all protected from the spread of the pandemic. This from Minister of Health Kim Wilson during the weekly national pandemic update, who led off her contribution with the confirmation that there were no new positives in the most recent set of test results, leaving our total case count at 223, with 20 active cases.

Just over one-quarter of one percent of people who’ve arrived on the island since the airport reopened five months ago has tested positive for COVID-19. Premier David Burt shared this statistic while summarizing its implications during the weekly national pandemic briefing.

National Security Minister Renee Ming, during a press conference Tuesday afternoon, underlined that improving the Bermuda Police Service’s overall effectiveness and commitment to best practice is a key component of her Ministry’s legislative agenda, summarizing the soon to be established Police Authority.

Bermudian students and aspiring insurance and reinsurance professionals have just received a new pathway into academic and career opportunity and success via a strategic partnership between Bermuda College, The Association of Bermuda Insurers & Reinsurers and New York’s St. John’s University, Maurice R. Greenberg School of Risk Management, Insurance & Actuarial Science.

According to ABIR Chairman and AXIS Capital CEO Albert Benchimol quote “This strategic partnership with Bermuda College and St. John’s University will build on our prior progress and sustain our long-term commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, which is so essential in our work. We remain very proud to be a leading employer and contributor to economic activity in Bermuda.” The partnership begins with a foundational insurance and reinsurance lecture series starting in January and extends into summer internships with ABIR members for Bermuda College students and scholarship pathways that lead BC students into Bachelors Degrees in Risk Management via St. John’s University and, subsequent to graduation, employment opportunities with leading insurance and reinsurance firms here on the island.