Attorney General, Dale Marshall, speaking during a press conference hosted by the Cabinet sub-committee on COVID-19 yesterday evening. Looking on is Minister of Health and Wellness, Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Bostic.
Pleasure cruises have been a hot topic in recent times.
WITH Barbadians preparing to ring in the new year, there will be a new law in the land to govern COVID-19 protocols as it relates to the last days of 2020 and first few days of 2021. For one week from Wednesday, December 30 till midnight of Wednesday, January 6, there will be major restrictions placed on gatherings and events into the new year.
During a media conference hosted late yesterday evening, a Cabinet sub-committee on COVID-19 addressed the nation on the latest developments concerning the viral infection and the details surrounding the week of special directives. With the briefing being chaired by Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator Dr. Jerome Walcott, he drew reference to recent developments which have seen the island’s management of the pandemic coming under fire and said that the Government and the public needed to work together to keep the virus at bay.
“We have come too far, we have done too well, the health workers and the frontline workers have worked too hard to get us where we are for us to just throw it away and abandon the whole process that we went through diligently over these months. It is too important. This country cannot afford another lockdown at this point in time. It is imperative that we become our brother’s keeper and ensure that we move forward and look after each other’s lives and livelihoods,” he said.
With the largest change being that any gathering larger than 150 persons has to be applied for through the COVID-19 Monitoring Unit and sanctioned by that body, there is also a ceiling of 250 allowed. Attorney General, Dale Marshall, noted that Barbados was still under a state of emergency and that the new limited directive will be coming in place to buttress what was already in place.
“That COVID directive does put obligations on individuals who are hosting parties and things of that sort to ensure that individuals who are attending follow the COVID protocols. But because of what we have seen and because what particularly concerns us in this period ending 2020 and the start of 2021, we felt it was important to make some modifications,” he said.
With pleasure cruises also being a hot talking point of recent, Marshall revealed that the Unit had met with operators earlier in the day and stated that promoters of cruises also have to seek permission and will have the maximum number of guests ascertained by the Unit.
“The fact is, and it does not do Barbados any credit, we know that people are following the protocols to get on the cruise. So they sanitise on entering, they wear their masks and so on, but the moment they get on the cruise and the vessel leaves the dock, masks come off and we seem to forget what rules obtain. I can say to you now that there will be a heavy presence of the Coast Guard on our shoreline monitoring actively all of the pleasure cruises that will take place over this period and in addition to that, we will also have the Marine Unit,” he said.
Noting that he understood that it was not an easy fit, Marshall added that there was room for only a small sliver of leniency over the coming week.
“We’re not going to be bringing down the hammer the first time, but we are prepared to allow Barbadians some opportunity to come back to a position where they need to be. We are calling it the two-strike rule. So we’re prepared to accept that we will warn you once, and we will warn you twice. But if the misconduct, if the failure to follow protocols persists, we will simply be shutting down all events that are in breach,” he said.
Going on to say that there was also expected to be concern about persons congregating on beaches and public spaces to view fireworks, Marshall said that the current directive will also be in place to keep groups under 50 persons and this all would be enforced by a joint Rapid Response group comprising the Royal Barbados Police Force and the Barbados Defence Force (BDF).
“Of course the individuals who are hosting events or who operate entertainment venues, they have a legal obligation to defend the public interest. But the Royal Barbados Police Force and the BDF will have the obligation to defend the public interest in open spaces. So beaches, streets – we know that there has been a challenge in Holetown and so on. So in public places where the COVID directives will not focus on a particular event, then you can rest assured that the Royal Barbados Police Force and the BDF will be ensuring that the public is protected by dispersing those crowds if necessary, but always being prepared to allow people to have a reasonable spirit of the season and to enjoy themselves in such a manner as not to endanger the public of Barbados,” Marshall said. (MP)