Rising covid19 rate worries PM Rowley

PRIME Minister Dr Rowley said he is worried by the sudden sharp jump in covid19 infections.

The Health Ministry confirmed 46 cases and three deaths on Thursday which prompted the PM to say the country could land itself in a serious crisis.

Speaking on Thursday evening, he said, “I’m very concerned that we are going in a direction that we want to avoid at all cost. When you cast your mind back to where we were in the teens or less (in terms of infections) and then to come to 46 in a day, the number might sound small but the rate in which it increased is worrisome, because if it continues like that we can get to a place of crisis. So we have to act now."

Asked why a decision to close beaches wasn’t made, Rowley said, “We could have done that but the situation at this point is not an alarm. It allows us to keep doing certain things and monitoring them. If it turns out that this is working against our objective, then we we may have to take those actions. We didn’t think it was required to do all of that. We allow a certain amount of exposure while not allowing all exposure.

The fundamental response that we make, he said, is to reduce this opportunity for the virus to jump from person to person. "So all we've been doing so far is to try and reduce the congregation of people as this is when the virus is at its best and propagating itself.

"So everything we do that involves large groups, especially close together and without masks on, is not to be encouraged at this stage.”