The Tribune

AS difficult as some of the decisions were to introduce restrictions to limit the spread of COVID-19, so too are we now finding it can be tough to find the right time to lift those rules.

There now exists a difference in where a mask is mandatory to wear indoors – in stores and businesses, you still have to wear a mask. In hotels, you don’t.

For some, this has prompted calls of discrimination. The Health Minister, Dr Michael Darville, tenuously claims that it is not discrimination but rather it is based on the vaccination rates of visitors and the testing requirements to come into the country. That doesn’t account for local staff working in the hotels, however. And what if another, non-hotel business was able to show all of its staff were vaccinated? Would that business be able to lift the mandate? It is, at best, an uneven policy.

More to the point, there remain concern from those working in locations where the masks are coming off that perhaps it is too soon.

The president of the Bahamas Hotel, Catering and Allied Workers Union, Darrin Woods, told The Tribune yesterday that union officials would have liked to have the mandatory mask mandate continue for several more weeks.

Mr Woods conceded that there had been a reduction in numbers of new cases recently – but noted that we were also now seeing a rise in tourist numbers, which may bring the virus once more. Looking at Europe, as countries have opened up again after the omicron wave, there have been new spikes in cases.

Against that, there are the concerns of businesses – with Bahamas Federation of Retailers co-chair Tara Morley recently calling for a relaxation of rules for other businesses, citing “resistance” from tourists and saying there had been cases where visitors, especially Americans, no longer want to wear masks when they enter a business.

Respectfully, however, we should do what we need to do for our country and not change our rules just to accommodate visitors who will only be here for a couple of weeks and be gone again by the time our case numbers might be surging again.

This should be a decision driven by medical expertise. If it is safe to take the masks off in hotels, then why wouldn’t it be safe to take them off in other businesses showing high vaccination rates? If it isn’t safe to take the masks off, then keep them on. Stopping the spread of the virus is a matter of life and death and weighs far heavier on the scales than mere inconvenience.

As the mandates lift, we would also hope that those staff members who wish to continue wearing masks would be allowed to do so.

There will be conflicts as we find our way out of a world of limits and restrictions – even as we thank heaven that we are in a position to lift them. But we should take the time to make sure people’s concerns are addressed, even as we take a step closer to the way things used to be.

University choice

The announcement of the new president of the University of The Bahamas has brought some measure of disappointment in some quarters.

Dr Erik Bolland has been chosen, a high-ranking member of staff at the California Polytechnic and State University.

Much local support had been given to another candidate, Dr Ian Strachan, and there is frustration that a non-Bahamian has been picked ahead of him.

The president of the Union of Tertiary Educators of The Bahamas was measured in his remarks yesterday, saying that the union would not “close the institution down” over the decision but that there was discontent.

Others spoke about how Dr Rolland may have the qualifications, but not in the environment of The Bahamas, with its different laws and tax regimes in comparison to the United States, as well as asking what does it show the student body, and how does it inspire them if the top job at the university goes to a non-Bahamian?

The debate on this, it would seem, is just beginning – and dealing with those questions will be on the to-do list for Dr Rolland when he arrives. Winning people over at the institution he will lead will be at the very top of that list.