Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis speaks on Monday.
By TANEKA THOMPSON
Tribune News Editor
tmthompson@tribunemedia.net
PRIME Minister Dr Hubert Minnis announced a strict “two-week minimum” national lockdown beginning tonight to curb the rapid spread of COVID-19, a decision he said came based on the advice of health officials.
Near the end of the two-week period, health officials will make an assessment to determine if the lockdown needs to be extended, Dr Minnis said during a national address.
The upcoming period has more restrictions than previous lockdowns, as most of the commercial sector has been ordered shut. For instance, takeaway and curbside dining has been prohibited as well as most of the retail sector, except for hardware stores.
People will be allowed to access grocery stores and water depots during the lockdown, however these businesses will only be open three days a week—Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 7am to 5pm—for the general public and on Saturdays from 7am to 1pm for essential workers only. Pharmacies will also be allowed to operate during the specified days, but only from curbside operations or take-away windows; gas stations will be allowed to provide external services only.
The impending lockdown is anticipated to lead to a rush on stores today, with at least one liquor store last night advertising a sale on alcohol and an early morning opening time.
“The purpose of alternating days is based on health guidelines that strongly demonstrate that limiting movement, and having clear days where there is no movement, helps to minimise the spread of COVID 19,” Dr Minnis said.
He said all households should identify one person to be the designated shopper for each of the essential services listed. He added the government’s enforcers will be monitoring shopping and the number of people travelling in vehicles.
“Throughout the country, all businesses and offices will be required to suspend operations, with limited exceptions and to have their staff work remotely, where this is possible,” Dr Minnis added.
Exceptions include commercial banks, which will be permitted to provide service to the public until 1pm on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He said accommodation will be made for international banks, trust companies and financial institutions to have a skeleton team in office on the same days.
Construction will be permitted to continue, due to the ongoing hurricane season, Monday through Friday, 7am to 5pm, and on Saturdays 7am to 1pm.
Hardware stores will have limited operations, with them only permitted to provide curbside services on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 7am to 5pm.
“There will be no curbside and takeaway dining or retail, other than as mentioned for hardware stores,” Dr Minnis stressed.
Private medical facilities will be permitted to provide emergency medical care and immunisation services only on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
All routine medical services are to be suspended, Dr Minnis said.
Home healthcare workers certified by the Ministry of Health will be permitted to carry out their services, however.
Among other exceptions to the lockdown, essential commercial ports will be allowed to continue their respective services and caretakers will be permitted to maintain crops and animals.
While in person church services have been suspended, the religious community can still host livestream events “with no more than 10 people at the facility, to accommodate virtual services,” he said.
Funerals will be allowed, however they are still only permitted at the graveside with no more than five attendees, excluding the officiant and mortuary staff.
Dr Minnis said outdoor exercise will also be allowed in a person’s immediate neighbourhood from 6am to 9am.
There is no change in the travel policy as outlined in the most recent emergency powers order.
Dr Minnis delivered the sombre national address on Emancipation Day, hours after health officials briefed his government and members of the official opposition at Cabinet.
At times he sought to strike a hopeful tone, while acknowledging that COVID-19 fatigue had set in for many.
“We enter this lockdown together as one people, as a Bahamian community united in love and a shared desire to fight this deadly virus together until the battle is over,” he said.
“I know that a lockdown like this is the last thing we wanted as a country. I know the nation is hurting; that our economy is in a terrible state; that many businesspeople are struggling; that many workers are now unemployed; that families are scared; that many of us are
afraid of catching the virus.
“I offer deep condolences to all those who have lost loved ones because of COVID-19. We are also praying for all of those ill in hospital or at home. Let me say to you as your prime minister and as someone who long ago took a solemn medical oath to save lives: I will and I must do all that is right and necessary to protect your life and those of your loved ones, neighbours and fellow citizens.
“We are taking the required and necessary measures to comprehensively battle COVID-19. I promise you, we can and we will rebuild our economy and our society. But what we cannot do is bring people back to life.
“So our first and foremost priority will always be to protect the lives of Bahamians and residents.”
He stressed that things will get better and a return to normal will one day occur, once there is a vaccine.
“Once we have reduced community spread, we can reopen parts of our economy again,” he said.
He also sought to rally a spirit of nationalism, casting residents “as partners” with the government in the fight against the virus, adding that the more disciplined people are during this lockdown, the sooner some measures can be eased.
He also said “2020 has not been the year any of us imagined,” adding, “I know many
of your plans have been halted. Many of your dreams paused.
“It is difficult not having our routines. It is difficult not seeing our friends, families and loved ones in the close ways we used to before the virus.
“Pandemic fatigue is setting in. Many are tired of restrictions; tired of separation. I
understand your frustrations. I too would like to be back to better times. However, we must not let that frustration lead us to slacken our behavior or resolve. COVID-19 kills. COVID-19 leaves some survivors so damaged that their lifespans may be shortened.”
Dr Minnis also said food distribution will continue through the National Food Distribution Task Force on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays, depending on the zone.
The task force is currently assisting more than 27,000 households throughout the country. Approximately 108,000 people are receiving food—the scale of which is “unprecedented for our country,” he said.
An assessment will be made of Grand Bahama nearing the end of its previous two week lockdown to determine if an extension is necessary for that island.
That island’s lockdown is set to expire on August 7 at 5am.
Comments
joeblow 4 years, 3 months ago
I'm sorry, his decisions are idiotic and his rule must be contested through a vote of no confidence from government ministers.
He is forcing people to congregate at food stores AGAIN, with cloth masks that offer no protection from inhaling the virus! Did he learn nothing from the last time he did that.
He is denying people access to healthcare DURING a healthcare crisis by only allowing them to access care on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays? This is insane. This country will recover from COVID-19, but it may not recover from the poor leadership of Minnis!
proudloudandfnm 4 years, 3 months ago
I don't recall any problems with shopping. What are you talking about? Its annoying yes but it did not add to the spread last time so what are you talking about?
joeblow 4 years, 3 months ago
... the first time Minnis had an impromptu lockdown it drove people in Nassau to grocery stores, banks and water depots en masse. I would think that should be the opposite of what one should hope for in this kind of pandemic!
http://www.tribune242.com/videos/2020/a…
Porcupine 4 years, 3 months ago
The Bahamas is not likely to "recover" in any manner, in our lifetimes. This is the sad reality that remains unspoken. The human, natural, and financial resources at our disposal are handicapped, dwindling or nonexistent. The idea that "we are on our own" has never been more apt. There is nothing the government, Minnis, or any other "savior" can do for us now that has not already been done. Once we accept this reality, we may have a chance at survival. Listening to those in supposed authority will do nothing to further us along forward, upward, nor onward. The true costs of allowing education to forever take a backseat in this country will now come back to haunt us in ways, once unimaginable.
Porcupine 4 years, 3 months ago
The most important thing for us to do now, is to kill the messenger, as we must, and always have done.
DWW 4 years, 3 months ago
NO. Minnis is not a messenger. he is a misguided meglomaniac. these measures are worse than the ailment.
Porcupine 4 years, 3 months ago
I didn't mean Minnis. I meant the message just above.
proudloudandfnm 4 years, 3 months ago
Forever? Chill, this is strictly temporary. Lockdowns work. Yes we are back in lockdown due to Minnis' dumb decision to open the borders but it is what it is. Chill. The 1918 was far worse, medical tech was nowhere near as good ad it is today yet the world went back to normal once the virus was beaten. It is temporary. Chill...
Dawes 4 years, 3 months ago
How temporary? I mean on July 10th he inistied that if we gave him 3 days then it would all be over. That was a lie. so are we to wait Until the vaccine? Many more lockdowns to come as every time we open up a bit there may be more spread. If Minnis was smart he would have got the hospitals ready for the next wave. But nope he did nothing .
joeblow 4 years, 3 months ago
@proudloudandfnm... I can only guess you are saying chill because you are smoking grass and/or are not an employer that is trying not to let staff go while business is erratic !!
Dawes 4 years, 3 months ago
Useless Minnis strikes again. If he was actually sincnce about the health issues we face he would have tried to sort the Health Department out from when he got elected. As of now he has done nothing, but he can now use its decrepit state to force a lockdown on Bahamians.
DWW 4 years, 3 months ago
Primum non nocere
K4C 4 years, 3 months ago
How does a country with an education rating of D have so many medial and constitutional experts ?
tetelestai 4 years, 3 months ago
And so many smart asses too!
K4C 4 years, 3 months ago
is there a class for being a smart ass
tetelestai 4 years, 3 months ago
No doubt, you were the valedictorian.
K4C 4 years, 3 months ago
Heavens no no no I have your pics from that graduating class
Congratulations
DWW 4 years, 3 months ago
so, asking for a friend. when the 'rona' is still around in 2021 and 2022, and 2035. we will still not be able to buy an alcoholic beverage?
Porcupine 4 years, 3 months ago
Stock up now brotherman. This is the opportunity of a lifetime. The country's largestt family fortunes began by selling illicit booze. Is this correct? Yes, or no?
TalRussell 4 years, 3 months ago
In the meantime, is there disturbing news about rear its head out PMH?
immigrant 4 years, 3 months ago
I can’t believe this fool has limited access to the food stores. They are already packed in like sardines. How could he not learn a lesson from his first moronic attempt with the alphabetical shopping. Besides...what evidence is there that a lockdown actually works. Grand Bahama going on almost two weeks and they still have more cases than Nassau every day.
Porcupine 4 years, 3 months ago
I agree on the food store access. Lockdowns don't work when people do not abide by, or understand why, we all must participate responsibly. That is what we are seeing from Grand Bahama. Merely a delayed response to stupidity.
ISpeakFacts 4 years, 3 months ago
I can’t believe this fool has limited access to the food stores. They are already packed in like sardines. How could he not learn a lesson from his first moronic attempt with the alphabetical shopping.
Thats Category 5 Hurricane Minnis for you, all lip and no brains!
ISpeakFacts 4 years, 3 months ago
What a moron, now every food store is packed, someone please ship this buffoon to China already so he can play fetch with his masters! And now according to the Bahamas Nurses Union President Amancha Williams...she said NO NURSES showed up to work at the accident and emergency department at Princess Margaret Hospital today.
LIKE I AND MANY HAVE SAID BEFORE...THIS COUNTRY IS A JOKE!!!
avidreader 4 years, 3 months ago
When is this man going to admit that the virus cannot be contained by the methods being employed? It is obvious to even the casual onlooker that it is impossible to control every individual in the country. All that is being accomplished is the sure and certain destruction of the economy of the country. Half of the problem is the attempt to impose unenforceable rules on an unwilling and unconvinced populace.
stillwaters 4 years, 3 months ago
.
rodentos 4 years, 3 months ago
open, close, open, close, open, close, open, close, open, close, open, close, open, close, open, close, open, close, open, close, open, close, open, close, open, close, open, close, open, close, open, close, open, close, open, close, open, close, open, close, open, close, open, close, open, close, open, close, open, close, open, close, open, close, open, close, open, close, open, close,
anyone has a plan?
joeblow 4 years, 3 months ago
... well based on the pattern I would say --- open?
DDK 4 years, 3 months ago
Plan Step One: MINNIS RESiGN. There is NOTHING good to say about this pathetic adminstration and its leader. The virus, like all others, needs to run its course and people need to look after themselves and be sensible. Minnis and his Cabinet are hell bent on destroying what's left of The Bahamas. They were doing a lousy job before The Virus, but now they are acting callously, dangerously and stupidly.
ISpeakFacts 4 years, 3 months ago
Minnis was always unfit to be leader! But after his lousy response to Hurricane Dorian, he should've been shipped off to China!
One has to wonder how many deaths from Dorian did Minnis and his administration hide...not to mention, Minnis and his administration are still holding onto the millions and millions of dollars and goods that were donated from the U.S, Abaco of course hasn't seen a single dollar!
themessenger 4 years, 3 months ago
Carry on Dr. Minnis and keep your shoulder to the wheel while these empty barrels continue to make all this noise. Take some comfort from the words of that savy old politician Winston Churchill who said " I would rather argue with a hundred idiots than have one of them agree with me."
ISpeakFacts 4 years, 3 months ago
But in this situation Minnis is one of those idiots! Hell, he's an idiot in every situation!
stillwaters 4 years, 3 months ago
.
joeblow 4 years, 3 months ago
@ themessenger... I bet if Minnis read your message and decided to "keep his shoulder to the wheel", his response would cause us to hear the sound of his car horn honking well into the night!!
SP 4 years, 3 months ago
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Lots of idiotic noises in the market place and NOT ONE sensible suggestion of what Minnis should be doing differently than other countries to irradicate COVID!
No apologies for PM Minnis missteps, however, CORONAVIRUS-19 is a new virus that NOBODY has any experience fighting. Minnis and crew are only human and bound to make mistakes while trying to navigate an unknown course dealing with this pandemic.
Look at the US for example. Regardless of The USA being the richest, and most powerful superpower on the planet, they have proven to be absolute, total, failures dealing with CORONAVIRUS-19! The rest of the world looks on with pity at the U.S. government's pathetic "non-response" to COVID-19.
The majority of what PM Minnis has done makes him look like a genius compared to what President Trump has done!
Yes, PM Minnis, you made a terrible decision by succumbing to pressure to open the borders. Now please ignore all these naysayers who altogether combined couldn't come up with a single positive thought for all the tea in China, pick yourself up, dust off your team, and move the country forward as best you can.
Carry on PM Minnis. We are beaten as is every other country in the world, but not defeated!
ISpeakFacts 4 years, 3 months ago
You must be as dumb and delusional as Minnis if you think no one here has given suggestions, many of us here have been doing so since early as February!
Minnis has done ZERO of the things I have listed and this virus has been here for MANY MANY months now! Barbados and many others are doing a WAY better job reopening their country than this Banana Republic!!! NO EXCUSES!!!
SP 4 years, 3 months ago
No excuses required. You obviously cannot comprehend what you read, and couldn't be truthful any more than Trump! Not one of your suggestions was even remotely necessary prior to Minnis's gigantic fubar of succumbing to pressure to open the borders! That was indeed an excessively bad judgment call with highly predictable consequences. Now that the error has been made, Minnis has no choice other than what is now being imposed to rectify his huge mistake.
Alternatively, Minnis can bury his head in the sand and act the fool like president Trump pretending an open economy, and a functioning school system can coexist with CORONAVIRUS!
The UK developed and about to roll out a new 90-minute testing system while Trump has the US buried in 7 to 10 days test results which are useless due to the long turn around time.
Unquestionably, Minnis screwed up and is far from perfect. However, I would much rather have him as a leader during this time than Perry Christie, Brave Davis, or Donald Trump!
ISpeakFacts 4 years, 3 months ago
You're a bigger idiot than I thought, but I'm not surprised because its clear as day you take after YOUR idiot leader, all lip and no brains!
DDK 4 years, 3 months ago
Carry on Minnis, leave the borders open and lock the country down again Total and utter lunacy. Best not ignore the naysayers, they are by far the majority and I wouldn't talk about what the man on the street has to say about all of this depravation and depravity. It looks like all rules are now made by a majority of one!
tribanon 4 years, 3 months ago
Our most pressing problem is really Minnis's shredding of our Constitution, and not the deadly Communist China Virus.
Our nation could survive the deadly Communist China Virus, but in doing so we would become a very different and much poorer nation.
But there's no way our nation will be able to survive a Minnis led government for much longer, without becoming either a failed state (like Haiti) or a proxy state for the sinister and most evil Communist Chinese Party (CCP).
Stripped of our most basic civil rights and liberties by Minnis, we will have no rising sun (no nation) for us to lift up our heads to. And that's the sad but harsh truth.
DDK 4 years, 3 months ago
August 7th, that's wonderful Tribune. Only three more vdsys of Minnis-made hell 😂.
DDK 4 years, 3 months ago
Food distribution programme to continue: Do Minnis, his over fed, largely indolent band of parliamentarions and senators, actually believe a tin or two of fatty corned beef, some wienna sauchases and a bag of nutritionless white rice will prevent The Virus from calling on all of the unemployed, who are, incidentally, unable to pay rent or mortgages, unable to pay credit card bills, unable to buy medicine or even have elective or emergency surgery, and is going to save our population while he and his band of merry desk thumping idiots play games with The People's lives while their crew of taxpayer paid civil servants continue to "work from home"???
DDK 4 years, 3 months ago
August 7th, three DAYS away (not whatever gibberish I posted!).
themessenger 4 years, 3 months ago
Then do us all a huge favor and stop your gibbering!
DDK 4 years, 3 months ago
Maybe this Corona nonsense is just a ploy by Minnis and his Cabinet to avoid the real issues such as government corruption, an over-bloated contingent of civil servants, a cruel and corrupt police force, a failed immigration policy, inefficient utility corporations run by more overpaid, ineffective government appointed self-serving idiots, a failed education and a failed medical care system, not to mention an economy long down the tubes, aided and abetted by a horrible system of stifling attempts to do business in The Bahamas....
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