Prime Minister and Minister of National Security, Dr the Rt Hon. Keith Mitchell, has reiterated the call for compliance with the 24-hour curfew and the accompanying regulations.
During a press conference on Monday evening, in which he announced the extension of the curfew to 7 am on 20 April 2020, Dr Mitchell said, “Government must continue to take actions in the interest of public safety and public health, to safeguard you, the citizens of this country, our greatest asset.”
Calling on the general public to adhere to the stipulated regulations, the Prime Minister said, “Government cannot do this alone; you must help us to help you. I cannot stress enough how important it is for everyone to remain confined to their place of residence during the curfew, so that we can minimise the potential spread of the virus in our community.”
Dr Mitchell expressed empathy for the frustrating experience some persons are facing, but he stressed that public health and safety are of paramount importance. Delivering an opening statement at the start of the press briefing, he said, “We understand your frustrations and sacrifices, and we continue to modify our approaches, but there is no perfect solution. We will continue to explore best practices, with one goal: to keep this nation and its people safe.”
The Prime Minister acknowledged that the pandemic has created many challenges, but gave assurances that concerted efforts are being made to address them in a timely and comprehensive manner.
Dr Mitchell noted too that Grenada’s success in the fight against Covid-19 depends on our collective efforts and he urged the population to continue to demonstrate that we are indeed our brother’s keeper.
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The government needs to supply the fishermen with gas for their boats so they can help feed the people.
The shopping restrictions are really not sensible. They force high densities of people together for the short opening times and they force people to buy more than they need because of the restrictions, thereby creating shortages for many. Splitting the alphabet into two for surnames is hardly going to make much difference. Shops should be open all the time to allow appropriate social distancing by diluting the shoppers across a wide time frame.
It is clear that the rules about shopping hours are way beyond sheer stupidity! As a multitude of comments have established, it only creates more congestion and works to make “personal distancing” impossible and most importantly does not meet the needs of people’s essential access to food. If any rules about opening hours are needed, it should be in the direction of forcing outlets to be open as dictated by public needs. By all means enforce rules that make it possible to achieve the required “personal distancing” requirements. None of this is at odds with the PM’s “Message” so ease up on the naked hand of control for control’s sake.