PRIME Minister Dr Hubert Minnis in Parliament. Photo: Donovan McIntosh/Tribune Staff
By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune Senior Reporter
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
PRIME Minister Dr Hubert Minnis said he hopes increased vaccinations and adherence to COVID-19 mitigation protocols will allow the government to remove emergency powers and end the state of emergency before August 13, the date to which the powers will be extended.
His comment came in the House of Assembly yesterday as he gave notice that at the next House sitting, members will debate a resolution to continue the state of emergency until August 13.
Governor General Sir Cornelius A Smith has declared a new state of emergency, which took effect on Friday. It gives the competent authority potentially another six months of emergency powers. At this stage the government is opting to extend for just three months. This is the fourth state of emergency he has declared.
Dr Minnis said yesterday: “This resolution, it is our hope that we would not need the three months. It is our hope that with the vaccination aggressively and progressively moving throughout the world and continuing through The Bahamas and with the cooperation with our populace in following the mitigation protocols of the pandemic, that we would see a turn and once that commences we’d love to remove all emergency power orders so individuals can return to their normal life following the new protocols of world standards that the world has put forth as quickly as possible. It is our hope that we will not need the three months.”
Sir Cornelius cited low vaccination numbers and the third wave of COVID-19 cases in New Providence and Grand Bahama as reasons for the state of emergency.
Meanwhile, the latest emergency order lifted the curfew on Abaco, Eleuthera and Exuma.
According to the latest order, fully vaccinated people can dine indoors. On Abaco, Eleuthera, Exuma and New Providence, this applies only Monday through Saturday, however.
Fully vaccinated people are no longer required to take an RT-PCR test to travel from New Providence and Grand Bahama and will not be required to do secondary testing on day five of inter-island travel from those islands.
On Sunday, Philip “Brave” Davis, Progressive Liberal Party leader, said his party supports measures supported by science but cannot support the “continued suspension of civil liberties.”
“With the prime minister’s own attorney general acknowledging that necessary health measures could be enacted via ordinary legislation, Bahamians understand that any move to extend the emergency powers has more to do with the state of Hubert Minnis’ political health than with the state of public health,” Mr Davis said in a statement.
“This isn’t complicated. Minnis is scared. He does not want to debate COVID measures in Parliament, he wants to act without having to defend his decision-making. He is worried that he cannot point to science or common sense to justify the restrictions on the public. He certainly does not want scrutiny of how, and with whom, he has spent pandemic funds.”
More like this story
- Curfew tightens on Family Islands
- MPS RECALLED TO PASS EMERGENCY EXTENSION: House reconvenes tomorrow to process continuing orders
- 6 MORE MONTHS: Emergency laws extended due to low vaccine uptake and threat from variants
- No state of emergency? Then no restrictions
- No decision yet on emergency extension
Comments
bahamianson 3 years, 5 months ago
What, the governing party is the Governing party, period. The opposition is the opposition . The opposition is not the governing party. The Governing Party makes the decisions. When The PLP gets in power, they will be the governing party, and they can make the decisions without interruptions from the FNM.
carltonr61 3 years, 5 months ago
The dining landscape in Nassau has shifted and is no longer revelent. Most indoor restaurants have closed down except for hotels. Bahamians mode of eating has shifted to in home. We are an adaptable people so the threats and heavy handed approach has meant that people simply adjusted. The curfew, restrictions and mode for dinning while under anxiety, mental siege and compitant emotional depression and uncertainty is a brand new state of being.
Godson 3 years, 5 months ago
I love you dearly Bahamas. But you will not get the blessings of The FATHER if it is the case that you have thrown out HIS Children; instead, you will inherit hardships like you are experiencing now. Why would He bless this House, that is, Our Country when the government and its agencies continue to alienate, ostracize, and persecute the faithful of The LORD who, for all intent and purposes, are the very inheritors of this Country? My father, Joseph McBain Johnson, was one of the few recruits who enlisted and went off to fight in World War I, yet, I am treated like a bastard.
Sickened 3 years, 5 months ago
If this vaccine is so good and important to opening our country, why not remove all restrictions for vaccinated people (i.e. no curfew, no masks etc.?).
JokeyJack 3 years, 5 months ago
Revelation 2:10.
The Coronavirus had not yet been invented, so back then they thought ten days was a long time.
tribanon 3 years, 5 months ago
THE CURSE OF POWER CRAZED MINNIS IS UPON US, AND THINGS ARE GOING TO GET A WHOLE LOT WORSE FOR THE VAST MAJORITY OF US.
tribanon 3 years, 5 months ago
Like most of us, Davis knows three important things about Minnis:
1) He's not at all bright upstairs, in fact a dunce;
2) He's obsessed with power, in fact power crazed; and
3) He's a coward, in fact utterly afraid of 1) and 2) above being all too easily revealed in any type of debate, whether it be on the floor of the HOA or in a public forum organized by the University of The Bahamas.
JokeyJack 3 years, 5 months ago
You guys realize that ALL world leaders are saying the same stuff right? I dont think it's fair to single out Minnis. Why are ALL saying the same?
tribanon 3 years, 5 months ago
Most of us are naturally much more concerned about the leadership of our own struggling nation right now.
As national general election time draws near, you seem increasingly afraid of the lesser of the two very sinister evils facing our nation at the moment. You really need to start thinking of Minnis for what he truy is - pure evil.
Therefore, if you're not able to vote for an independent candidate running in your constituency for whatever reason, then it's my preference you not bother to vote at all rather than support pure evil. But I obviously must recognise it's your vote to do with as you see fit.
DDK 3 years, 5 months ago
Because they are a flock of sheep!!
tribanon 3 years, 5 months ago
With Minnis being the most lost of all the sheep!
carltonr61 3 years, 5 months ago
10,000 dead Bahamians from Osford College got us into this mess March 2020. Our leader now know this to be a lie yet he is still playing the script toward some international goalposts that keeps on stretching like a rubberband.
proudloudandfnm 3 years, 5 months ago
What kind of stupidness is this???? 10,000 Bahamians from Osford??? What in the hell are you trying to say???
Listen. Obviously you are nowhere near intelligent enough to understand what's actually happening around the world. So sit small, hush up and let the adults talk.... Damn.. osford??? Huh???
carltonr61 3 years, 5 months ago
Oxford University Covid death model for the Bahamas was an estimated 10,000 persons which lead to the fear lockdown in March 2020.
carltonr61 3 years, 5 months ago
On the heels of six more months under dictatorship Atlantis just let go of 700 workers. There is a bad omen they sensed.
carltonr61 3 years, 5 months ago
I get it. Like Singapore rolling out the global script for child vaccination. August I bet you he force this experiamtal vaccine into our children. He knows that is why he is holding onto dictatorship. But this will be a fiasco.
tribanon 3 years, 5 months ago
Let Minnis try. lol
Can you imagine parents who are afraid to get jabbed themselves being told that their children must get jabbed in order to be able to go to a public school? That would be the very definition of political suicide.
DDK 3 years, 5 months ago
"Meanwhile, the latest emergency order lifted the curfew on Abaco, Eleuthera and Exuma. According to the latest order, fully vaccinated people can dine indoors. On Abaco, Eleuthera, Exuma and New Providence, this applies only Monday through Saturday, however."
The man is maniacal! He has to hold off on Sunday dining.
Such a clever virus. It can differentiate not only between hours of the day but also days of the week🤣
tribanon 3 years, 5 months ago
That damn Wuhan virus is smarter than most smart phones will ever be.
ohdrap4 3 years, 5 months ago
Had it been me, I would have made it alphabetical. ABCDE MONDAY, FGHIJ TUESDAY, ETC..
proudloudandfnm 3 years, 5 months ago
PRIME Minister Dr Hubert Minnis said he hopes increased vaccinations and adherence to COVID-19 mitigation protocols will allow the government to remove emergency powers and end the state of emergency before August 13, the date to which the powers will be extended.
Nassau is seeing 50 cases a day, obviously adherence to protocols is a problem there. You are doing nothing about Nassau's third wave, nothing at all, guess you're afraid to act responsibly in the hopes of being re-elected. Most Bahamians are buying into idiotic conspiracy theories about the vaccine so no way we'll see herd immunity. To say you think everything will be fine by August is a lie. As a medical proffessional you cannot possibly believe the words you spoke. Of course Nassau won't be ok by August. I wish we had local government to block all travel to and from Nassau on our island. Stupidity reigns on NP and you seem to be a part of the problem, not the solution....
tribanon 3 years, 5 months ago
He's not the least bit concerned about you in particular because he knows full well he has your vote in the bag. lol
DDK 3 years, 5 months ago
Children finally getting back to school have just been told that they are back to the virtual non-schooling. This looney tune is even punishing the children. How many more whips does he have up his sleeve? He is the personification of "control freak".
carltonr61 3 years, 5 months ago
Our children are his next cattle to be branded by his vaccination or no education blackmail. Imagine him preaching Melo drama over a dead child pleading for grandparents and parents or their child will suffer the same fate. While his pockets bulge. But with Mrs. Gates angry that her husband did to many hangouts with the world most renowned pedophile Epstein many leaders pockets might not get full.
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