The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

SOUTH Andros Chamber of Commerce president Joe Rahming says he welcomes the new 8pm curfew on the island as it will help bring their COVID-19 surge under control.

Mr Rahming, told Tribune Business: “The cases were rising. It was really on a level. I hope it gets better. I don’t know what we can do, but the curfew is good until we can get it under control and I accept the curfew.”

 In May north and central Andros was locked down due to an alarming rise in COVID-19 cases, but the south was left alone. At that time south Andros still felt the effects of the full lockdown of the northern and central part of the island because they use many of the public facilities in those areas.

This time the curfew affects the entire island of Andros, which Mr Rahming feels is “proper” considering what has been happening on the island.

The emergency orders issued yesterday stated that for the island of Andros, a curfew will be imposed from 8pm to 5am. Conversely, this curfew also extends to the island of Abaco and the surrounding cays.

While south Andros is “pretty slow” and nothing much happens after 9pm in the nights, Mr Rahming said: “The young people still move about and that’s the problem. You have a situation like this and what we have seen is the younger people haven’t been taking it that seriously and doing things like wearing their masks.”

With the lack of strong adherence to the COVID-19 safety protocols, Mr Rahming reiterated: “You have to always insist to wear your masks and come inside the store with your mask.

“Then the concern is school is going to reopen in another week, so how are we going to deal with this? We have to leave the politics of this to the side and just deal with this as a country and do what we need to do.”