by Linda Straker
- 1947 Quarantine Act to be amended to increase penalty for breach of quarantine regulations
- Amendment will be laid in the House on Wednesday, 2 December 2020
- Fine increased to $25,000 with imprisonment for 1 year
Government is amending the 1947 Quarantine Act to increase the penalty for individuals who breach the Quarantine (Covid-19) regulations. At present the maximum fine for breaching the quarantine regulations is EC$10,000.
According to the amendment which will be laid in the House on Wednesday, 2 December 2020, the Bill is seeking to amend section 7 (2) to increase the maximum penalty from a fine of $10,000 and imprisonment for 6 months, to a fine of $25,000 and imprisonment for 1 year.
To date, 5 persons are known to be charged by law enforcement for breaching the Covid-19 regulations with the magistrate who dealt with the matter ordering fines ranging between EC$3,000 to EC$5,000. However, because of the nature of the Covid-19 and the impact it can have financially, economically and socially on the country, many citizens have been advocating for an increase in the penalty.
Grenada has recorded 41 laboratory-confirmed cases since the first case was recorded in March with most of the already declared medically recovered. There have been no deaths and no indication of community spread.
This is the first time this legislation, which relates to quarantine and similar matters, is being amended. The 73-year-old legislation provides the Minister for Health with the power to establish a Quarantine Authority and have parliamentarians approve regulations for its effective functioning.
The Quarantine Amendment Bill is also seeking to insert a new section which confers on the Minister the power to make regulations relating specifically to the response to Covid-19 without the requirement for confirmation by the House of Representatives.
“Regulations made under the new section 4A would be subject to negative resolution of the House of Representatives, as opposed to confirmation by the House of Representatives,” is the justification provided in the explanatory notes of the Bill.
We need to have a firing squad for those who breach quarantine, leave home quarantine and for our empty minded grenadian people who dont wear a mask. these kind of people should be executed on the fort, qurantine point and in the middle of town. we have white people coming into the country and yes they are welcomed but they do nothing to protect themselves from others. the government is taking great measures to protect this country from covid put they need to be harsh with restrictions and protocols. democracy does not give us the right to break covid protocols but to support the way the government has protected this country from a covid outbreak.
You can fully count on this so-called administration and indeed all these so-called politicians to implement everything at its and their disposal to inflict maximum non-benefits and mistreatment on indigenous Grenadians. What else is new?
They did not apply the maximum fine of $10,000 to the two “Americans” who went on a COVID – sharing spree, yet they are increasing the maximum fine possible. This means that the increase is likely directed at Indigenous Grenadians only, just in time for the budget.
They ran the island to the ground and now they want to empty the pockets of Indigenous Grenadians
no it is not!!!! stop saying that the government is oppressing us!!! they are not! the fine has been increased for both locals and foreigners. stop being so harsh against everything to do with foreigners. it is for everyone okay!! you get upset because of some chinese building some housing project which will give grenadians a better standard of living. you get upset that grenada signs a visa agreement with Georgia an Eastern European country which will make our passport rank 33rd in the world in terms of having the strongest passports and now you want to say that the government is oppressing us but not foreigners because of some senseless propaganda that you and your propagandist friends created. indegenous grenadians are not us black grenadian people who came from africa here you know. if you ask dominica who are their native indigenous people they will tell you that it is the amerindian people. we are african immigrants who came to settle here just like the usa is made of european immigrants. probably if you didnt fail history you would find out that the native peoples of grenada are the amerindians. i dont know what it is that makes you hate the foreign world so much but all im just saying is that if it wasnt for your japanese made car you wouldnt be driving around, if it wasnt for your american computer that was MADE IN CHINA you wouldnt be posting this senseless comment here. and most of all. you just make no sense. there is no way that grenada can survive on its own without the foreign world. someone like you would turn this country into haiti. just please re educate yourself and stop showing hate to some people that dont hate you.
Wow. You just make no sense. That is all I have to say. you are spreading racist propaganda. Grenada is a country that depends on the foreign world. We all depend on the foreign world. We are too small of a country to survive on our own. The cocoa and Banana we have can’t even pay for infrastructure. Everything that has to do with foreigners you hate. you oppose a tourism industry that can bring massive construction, jobs and employment for locals and that can help develop our country. you oppose the fact that Grenada signed a visa waiver agreement with Georgia which bring our passport ranking to 33rd in terms of strongest passports in the world. and now you are saying that the oppression is being brought against us Grendians. you most likely failed history. not knowing that the indigenous people of Grenada are the Amerindian people. not us people of black african descent.
John thomas you make no sense. buying into propaganda that america created to end relationships with a country China which is willing to help develop the country so that they can watch us fall into poverty. you cant even do a single thing for this country than to just run your mouth on the government and foreigners. big massive infrastructure projects taking place by the foreigners, something that someone like you cant even do. you contribute nothing towards this country than to just promote hate propaganda. imagine what this country will be like without the foreign world. we would be like poooor like haiti. We have no resources and we dont even have a strong nationalism. I want to know what you would do for this country if you feel that it isnt going the right way.
The same foreigners you dont like are the Japanese who make the cars for you to drive. The Americans are people who give you Computers made in China so you can make this senseless comment and the Europeans give us the same food to eat each and every day. Let’s see what would happen if we take all of that away from us. We can only depend on what we have. That is tourism. Foreigners are welcomed to travel to here just like we travel to foreign countries. All I am just saying is that your propaganda does not make any sense and you need to come to realization that it will destroy our country and make it fall apart.
Besides this fine increase is for everyone okay! so stop thinking that foreigners are given a pass and we grenadians have to pay the price!!! no no no!!! It is for everyone!
Globally, COVID has a reported mortality rate of 0.02% of a population. Granted this pandemic isn’t over yet, and unfortunately more people will succumb in the future. To put this into perspective, this would indicate that Grenada might expect to have 20 fatalities related to COVID in a given year. In 2017, Grenada recorded 411 deaths related to cardiovascular conditions, 228 due to neoplasms, 95 due to diabetes, and 51 due to kidney disease. Granted these are not communicable diseases you can catch from someone else. It is challenging trying to deal with all the myriad of information and miss-information on this virus, but I think it is important to always use the numbers to put it into perspective.
No we should not be complacent. No we should not relax. But by the same token we need to ensure the cure is not more painful than the cause.
(1)
Hmm.
I do approve of the individual accountability, with increasing the fine. As I was telling one individual from the Health Ministry, that mass punishment will not work. We have to treat all cases according to the facts. Having a Mandatory Hotel Based Quarantine(MHBQ) or paid imprisonment is not a smart panacea. We punish violators as the law states. This is what intelligent and prospering countries do. We are making it very hard for our own people to come back home. But will spend thousands of man hours deliberating on how to get the cruise ship in…where is the solidarity to our people ? We Grenadians will always be here, even after the tourists come and spend less than $5000 in whatever currency they have. But we will still be here. Why don’t we pave the way and treat us Grenadians with dignity and respect instead as second class citizens and the foreigners as saviors who deserved red carpet treatment and at the same token looking down on the people who you want voting for you in the next election…PITIFUL !
(2)
Interesting, a 1947 Quarantine Act. Grenada gained Independence in 1974. Something is definitely wrong here. Are we still on the British coat tail? And flip-flop whenever we want to. Come on Grenada we can do better. Let’s devise our own laws and regulations.
Why didn’t the doctor & his wife get the, then, maximum penalty of EC$10,000 & some time in prison?
I hope that this new law will make foreigners and returning Grenadains learn..COVID-19 is a serious disease.
Except that it’s not. https://web.archive.org/web/20201126223119/https://www.jhunewsletter.com/article/2020/11/a-closer-look-at-u-s-deaths-due-to-covid-19
To summarize: The increase in C-19 deaths almost exactly matches the DECREASE in deaths from all other causes. In country after country, researchers are finding no increase in total mortality when compared to recent years. 2020 will go down as the year that globalist NGO’s tried to reestablished slavery world wide.
You are citing a retracted/archived article.
Editor’s note: “We decided on Nov. 26 to retract this article to stop the spread of misinformation”
The current link is: https://www.jhunewsletter.com/article/2020/11/a-closer-look-at-u-s-deaths-due-to-covid-19
Retracted. So glad you pointed that out. John Hopkins has been tracking the scamdemic from the beginning. The data in the article is accurate and confirms similar data from many other countries. It’s the conclusions of the article that are retracted not the data. Thus, when the conclusions don’t match the “official” version and resulting agenda, suddenly the article is “misinformation.”
Corona virus is a risk that does require preventative measures.
However, far far more people have died and will die owing to lamentable unavailability of treatment for many other serious illnesses.
There is zero credit due to Ministry of Health where major focus is diverted away from Grenada’s perennial real medical needs.
And if this doesn’t deter them, I recommend we tie them to electric poles and execute them by firing squad