PRIME Minister Dr Hubert Minnis.
Exempted persons include:
• Essential services workers at:
-The Rand Memorial Hospital and other public health and mediical facilities
-Quarantine Centre
-Royal Bahamas Police Force, Royal Bahamas Defence Force, NEMA, OPBAT
-Department of CorrectionalServices
-Department of Immigration
-Customs Department
-Ministry of Environment and Housing
• Members of the National Food Distribution Task Force, Grand Bahama Food Distribution Centres and NGOs for the purpose of food distribution.
• Industrial businesses, including:
-Polymers International;
-Grand Bahama Power Company;
-Grand Bahama Utility Company;
-Bradford Grand Bahama Limited;
-PharmaChem Technologies G.B. Ltd. and subcontractors;
-Freeport Container Port Ltd;
-Bahama Rock - Martin Marietta;
-Buckeye Bahamas Hub Ltd and subcontractors;
-Grand Bahama Shipyard;
-Bahamas Industrial Technologies Ltd.;
-Bahamian Brewery;
-Tropical Shipping;
-MSC Bahamas;
-Freeport Aggregates Ltd; and
-Quality Services Ltd.
• Print and electronic media, security guard companies, Grand Bahama Airport Company and Air Traffic Controllers.
Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis has announced a two-week lockdown for Grand Bahama from Thursday including a shutdown of all flights and sea vessels (except for essential goods) following the surge of COVID-19 cases there.
Making the announcement outside Parliament on Tuesday morning, Dr Minnis said the lockdown will take effect beginning Thursday, at 7pm until Friday, August 7th at 5am.
At 6pm tonight all domestic flights in and out of Grand Bahama will cease.
During the lockdown, food stores will be allowed to operate Monday to Friday from 7am to 5pm.
Pharmacies, water depots and gas stations will be allowed to operate Monday to Friday from 7am to 1pm for the general public.
The Grand Bahama Humane Society and waste disposal and sanitation companies will be permitted to open Monday to Friday 7am to 1pm for the general public.
Food stores, pharmacies, gas stations and water depots will be allowed to operate on Saturdays 7am to 1pm for essential workers only.
Construction activities related to hurricane preparedness are permitted but permission to buy supplies will be on an emergency basis only once the lockdown begins. Religious services must be virtual.
Dr Minnis said you may only leave home in an emergency or if you are an essential worker.
The Prime Minister added that the government will do all it can to help those in need during this lockdown. Food vouchers are to be be distributed and police and Defence Force will be in place using PPEs as needed.
Dr Minnis said the lockdown is absolutely necessary, saying “today, we are in a an emergency situation.”
Comments
ISpeakFacts 4 years, 5 months ago
According to the Ministry of Health, Cat Island has just reported its first 2 confirmed cases! Would be terrible if they have no history of travel, it would mean community spread has already started!
Minnis and his "Yes Men" have doomed us all!!!
TalRussell 4 years, 5 months ago
Comrade Mr. Renward, 'em best have his health people on the ground to keep a proactive watchful eye on certain very potentially virus hot spots in the Abaco's? Nod Once for Yeah, Twice for No?
proudloudandfnm 4 years, 5 months ago
There are more details Tribune. What companies are excluded? Have any of the excluded companies seen any cases?
I know one of them has. Time for some actual journalism. People's lives are in jeopardy....
TalRussell 4 years, 5 months ago
Ma Comrade Proud, the Tribune, like all other business but Grocer Rupert's, have lost eighty-plus percent their revenue stream. No telling is they too won't be forced to be shutting down their printing presses?
tribanon 4 years, 5 months ago
The only emergency situation GB is in is the very one that Minnis himself has put the entire Bahamas in by his utterly daft and foolish decision to re-open our country's borders to travellers from the US at a time when most states in the US, especially Florida, were and still are ablaze with community spread of the deadly Communist Chinese Virus.
And now clueless and directionless Minnis gets the opportunity to indulge himself in feeding his insatiable appetite for power by issuing emergency orders as the 'incompetent' authority. Some would say he has totally lost it upstairs, but those who know him well, know full well that he never had anything upstairs to lose in the first place.
birdiestrachan 4 years, 5 months ago
Doc is intellectually starved. two companies Bahamian Brewery and Bahamas Rock will remain open. did the brewery wright him. Pharmacies and service Stations close at 1 pm Is a brewery essential?
Only leave home for emergencies. is going to the food store an emergency
I do not understand is it being mean to the average Bahamian or is it DUMB..
TalRussell 4 years, 5 months ago
Ma Comrade, you can't be recommending The Colony's Central Authority to leave FREE port to be?
birdiestrachan 4 years, 5 months ago
Construction will continue. But permission to buy supplies will be on an emergency basis. What a bunch of foolishness.
ISpeakFacts 4 years, 5 months ago
Well said birdie, Minnis is a complete idiot!!!
rodentos 4 years, 5 months ago
Good, we become a permanent economic recovery zone with no taxes!
mandela 4 years, 5 months ago
We are in this predicament not because of COVID-19 but because of bad leadership, Trump-style.
TalRussell 4 years, 5 months ago
FREE port has been the perfect example that without influx tourists it is economically capable of self-sustaining itself for long periods. I'd be shocked to learn that FREE port, attracted more than a handful of tourists from July 1 to today's date? Nod Once for Yeah, Twice for No?
mandela 4 years, 5 months ago
The Tribune why do you put this man our supposed to be beloved PM's picture on your front pages? it's DEPRESSING.
The_Oracle 4 years, 5 months ago
One could say that Minnis himself created the Crisis by a) allowing Bahamians a 3 day Florida shopping trip without a test needed for return, and B) not catching the local Bahamian test being presented by Bahamians upon return within 10 days of the test, aka 9 day shopping trips to Florida. By contrast Dr. Sands didn't get anyone infected by allowing the 6 on the private plane to enter without a test but self quarantine. The politics of this is a disgrace. Both sides.
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