Supermarket Association okay with SoE extension

SUPERMARKET Association head Rajiv Diptee says he has not detected any great opposition to government’s proposed extension of the state of emergency.

The proposal is to be debated in the House of Representatives on Wednesday.

Diptee said activities such as nightlife and late dining, which would flow from any lifting of the SoE and curfew, would not fit in well with the ongoing need for covid19 protocols and regulation.

"There are no great benefits to be had presently (by lifting the SoE.)

"If you were to lift the SoE, you'd have to look at it against the backdrop of covid19 protocols in place. You'd still have to maintain social distancing, you'd still have to wear your mask and you'd still be required to wash your hands.

"So nightclubs can't operate, restaurants can't operate. There would be very few businesses operating later into the night. It would not have any real benefit.”

He said the announcement came as no surprise to him.

"The extension was extremely predictable from our point of view. The fact the reaction has been so muted is because the extension was not unpredictable."

He said the central issue now was a need to continue to vaccinate as many people as possible.

"If you lift the curfew it would cause more interactivity among people, because people would see it as a relaxation of covid19 protocols, when in fact we don't even have a halfway-vaccinated population right now."