Welcome steps forward in safe zones

The Police Service issued a statement on Thursday commending the efforts of Port of Spain restaurateurs and bar owners for their efforts to adhere to covid19 safe-zone requirements.

It's been a month since the government created restaurant, bar and recreational zones that are allowed to cater to vaccinated patrons and vaccinated staff with limits on capacity. Unvaccinated patrons with a negative PCR test less than 48 hours old are also allowed access to these designated spaces. Unvaccinated employees must supply a new PCR test every two weeks.

It was an important step forward in the measured reopening of the economy.

The country is still far from returning to normal, with deaths attributed to covid19 running at an average of 11 per day last week.

By mid-October, the Chief Medical Officer announced that 150 inspections of businesses operating as safe zones had been done. There is no cost to the designation, but the voluntary effort requires diligent and ongoing attention to ensure compliance.

There have been some bad actors. One Princes Town bar owner was fined twice for hosting unvaccinated patrons and another business permitted itself 90 per cent capacity, attracting the $25,000 fixed-penalty notice.

But the cost of these infractions is not limited to the fine. It's also being paid by overworked medical staff in the parallel health sector, who are facing a constant rise in covid19 patients, most of them unvaccinated, with an ICU system that has been completely filled.

There are also challenges for businesses to be viable with these limitations, particularly those that cater to families with young children. Those under 12 can't be vaccinated and can't enter safe zones. That has also created problems for some aspects of the hotel business, and Tobago hoteliers hoping for staycation business have reported struggles configuring their businesses to cater to the restrictions of operating as safe zones.

The number of safe-zone businesses is still small, as restaurants continue to operate on a takeaway model and grapple with vaccine hesitancy among staff.

For those businesses, there is a continuing risk to unvaccinated employees who may become sick or have to be quarantined with further business losses for premises that have to be closed or sanitised.

The fact that not enough potential customers have been vaccinated, and hence the size of their market reduced, has also been a deterrent to many businesses.

It's early days yet for the concept, and adjustments by business owners and their clients are to be expected, but they need to be done decisively.

The country's experience with safe zones offers a template for the management of groups of people gathered for recreation under covid19 in a country that thrives on social engagement.

With the approaching end of the nationwide curfew on November 29, that discipline, in even limited gatherings, needs to be driven by a consensus acknowledging its necessity. The imminent end of the state of emergency does not mean life will return to normal any time soon.