[UPDATED] Deyalsingh: Real-estate sector reopens Monday

Real estate services will reopen on Monday along with personal and domestic services.

At the Health Ministry’s virtual covid19 update on Saturday, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said, “All real estate services will be operationalised from Monday, August 23. We deem this low risk and also it’s a serious area of economic activity.”

He also confirmed that spas, beauty parlours, facial and nail technicians, barbers, hair salons, hairdressers, house keepers, gardeners, and others in similar lines of work would be allowed to operate.

He cautioned service providers and clients to be careful and encouraged both parties to get vaccinated as soon as possible for their own safety.

“We ask the providers of these services, as far as humanly possible to keep your masks on, to not only protect yourself, especially if you are unvaccinated, but to protect you from your unvaccinated clients.”

Deyalsingh added that beaches, river, and bars will remain closed as the ministry weighed risks versus reward.

Initially responding to a question on the reopening of rivers and beaches, he later applied his response to that of bars as well.

He said they had to be taken in the context of the hundreds of thousands of people moving around with the reopening of various sectors over the past months.

“So we try to look at all the risks and see what the economic benefits are and at this point in time, we are trying to focus on those sectors of society to open that are very productive, that engages thousands and thousands of persons in employment.

“We do recognise that at the beaches we do have some employment, bake and shark, all of that, but it’s a matter of risk and reward. So we continue to monitor all parameters before decisions are made to open.”

This story has been updated with additional details. Below is the original publication.

Real estate services will reopen on Monday along with personal and domestic services.

At the Health Ministry’s virtual covid19 update on Saturday, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said, “All real estate services will be operationalised from Monday, August 23. We deem this low risk and also it’s a serious are of economic activity.”

He also confirmed that spas, beauty parlours, facial and nail technicians, barbers, hair salons, hairdressers, house keepers, gardeners, and others in similar lines of work would be allowed to operate.

He cautioned service providers and clients to be careful and encouraged both parties to get vaccinated as soon as possible for their own safety.

“We ask the providers of these services, as far as humanly possible to keep your masks on, to not only protect yourself, especially if you are unvaccinated, but to protect you from your unvaccinated clients.”

Deyalsingh added that beaches, rivers and bars will remain closed as the ministry weighed risks versus reward.