Rowley: Hold on for two more weeks

IF the numbers of discharged positive cases continue on a downward trend and with mandatory mask-wearing laws in place to help curb the community spread, the country may resume regular activities by the mid-September.

Speaking at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann’s on Saturday, the Prime Minister said by the second week of the month, the Government will know if it will be able to remove the restrictions or continue to enforce them.

Rowley said all of the measures in place will continue with the addition of mandatory masks, which was passed in the Lower House on Friday and in the Senate on Saturday, and a possible alteration on public transport.

Rowley said the Ministers of Works and Transport and Health will meet with the maxi-taxi associations this week to discuss this issue. Government is minded, he said, to allow maxis to operate at 65 per cent capacity and for taxis to place one passenger to each window.

He added that in order to maintain a low traversing population, the public sector was placed on essential services only and those who are deemed essential will be rotated, so if someone gets the virus it will not cripple the work to be done.

“We can’t go on panic living because someone has it. We are doing two things. There is life and livelihood. We are trying to preserve life by all the things we are doing; we are trying to preserve livelihoods, so we don’t want to be shutting down all over the place as a fashion, only when it is essential.”

Rowley spoke of being invited to a party with “a lot of nice girls” which promised that if you entered early the fee was $50 while latecomers paid $100. That information was passed to police hoping that they attend and “lock up everybody who was there.”

“I am fed up of people playing the fool when we are talking about saving lives and livelihoods. Those kinds of gatherings cause us to struggle.”

In March, the country was placed on lockdown to curb covid19 with only essential workers out.  Rowley had also announced that the country will be reopened on a phased basis. On April 25, he encouraged TT to “hold the fort” as he extended the stay-at-home request to two more weeks from April 30 to May 15.

On May 9, Rowley ended six-week stay-home restrictions by allowing food businesses to open and extended opening hours to groceries and hardware stores. By May 16, he advised businesses that if patrons were not masked then they should not be served. This was not a law but a stern plea. This came in the second phase  of reopening, with manufacturers and the construction sector back to work while public transport went to 50 per cent capacity.

With the numbers of infections remaining steady the economy was reopened on May 30. Phase three of the reopening of the economy was moved up six days to June 1 as there had not been any reported cases between April 26 and May 30. However, public transport remained at 50 per cent.

Phase four, was moved up to June 8: this saw barbers, hairdressers and spas and beauticians opened, with domestic workers returning to work. Eleven days later, on June 19, the PM opened the country with a closing time of 10 pm for all businesses. The entertainment industry remained closed. By then the physical reopening of schools was scheduled for September 1.

On August 15, however, the PM announced the plan to make wearing face masks mandatory as the country saw an exponential increase in cases. Public transport reverted to 50 per cent. Government employees were told to work on a shift system and in-house dining was stopped. Beaches, rivers, play parks and cinemas were closed.