by Curlan Campbell, Now Grenada
- Public’s refusal to comply threatens to exacerbate health situation
- Village shops will be open to ensure limited exposed
- Most shops to be open from 8 am to noon on specified days
Grenadian authorities are working hard to limit the spread of the coronavirus, which to date has infected 9 people. However, the public’s refusal to comply with government instructions threatens to exacerbate the health situation.
It in this regard that Minister for Health, Hon. Nickolas Steele announced Sunday that a mandatory curfew will be imposed starting from 7 pm Monday, 30 March. Prior to this, a limited State of Emergency yielded poor results due to lack of compliance, and it had been observed that the public’s lack of adherence to the social distancing protocol poses a significant risk for the safety of the various communities.
Therefore, persons are encouraged to abide by the 24-hour curfew imposed or face the consequences.
As part of the regulations for the mandatory curfew, although people are allowed to venture out for food items, Steele said that it has been noticed that persons are leaving their homes to purchase non-essential food items. “We have observed what people are going to the supermarkets for, and they are not going for essentials. I haven’t seen anyone coming out with an entire week’s worth of food or so. I see people going in for incidentals, and that is almost falling into greed and ignorance. I want to repeat while we said you can leave for food, I really want to ask the Grenadian people to do not leave [their homes] unless it is a food emergency.”
During the 7-day 24-hour imposed curfew, shops are expected to be open from 8 am to noon on specified days. The government stated that most, if not all of the village shops will be open based on the prescribed hours. Minister Steele said this is to ensure that people are exposed as little as possible and for a shorter distance as possible in the wake of the spread of the virus.
Prime Minister and Minister for National Security, Dr Keith Mitchell, called upon shopkeepers to be responsible. “Clearly we had no choice but to allow the village shops to be open, but we expect that the management of the shops will also be understanding of his responsibility to protect himself and his family and the person who comes to the shop, so they should ensure that the people stick to the protocol.”
Minister Steele indicated that patient zero is currently in stable condition and has been allowed to recover at home under surveillance.
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In support of Concerned Citizen comments.. might I suggest that supermarket management be required to manage and control customer access by instituting a number control system to ensure that only a certain number of customers will be in the store at any one tiime. Management would bear the expense of security
personnel in place at the entrance to ensure compliance. Small village stores cannot serve the numbers that supermarkets like IGA in Spiceland. However efficient and effective control of customers is an essential condition of any permission to serve the community. Government should make this a condition of being open.
When we cut tail the regular supermarkets who has all the proper structures, processes, foot markings to deal with such numbers of ppl . Closing them and having multitudes of patrons gathering like sardines at the doors of a few village shops who were previously overwhelmed and where very little caution is practiced. Personally i think this is more a threat to ones health .
We are expected to purchase essential foodstuff for one week and most of the village shops don’t even have that amount of stock. The lucky ones who happen to get in before 12 noon most are faced with empty shelves.
If we want Grenadians to shop for a week so they dont have to come back two and three times clearly this thought process was done spontaneously and not throughly.
He me out . I clearly see there was a pertinent need for the 24 hr curfew however the shopping reroute and a single refueling station clearly did not work. Just take a look at the images on the news and social media. I do hope the process can be revised.
Through it all i must commend the Government for taking a bold step to isolate and minimize the risk to we Grenadians.
Please listen to this advice. In Europe the people who are dying doubles every 3 days. For a small nation it may have a big long-term effect.
When we cut tail the regular supermarkets who has all the proper structures, processes, foot markings to deal with such numbers of ppl . Closing them and having multitudes of patrons gathering like sardines at the doors of a few village shops who were previously overwhelmed and where very little caution is practiced. Personally i think this is more a threat to ones health .
We are expected to purchase essential foodstuff for one week and most of the village shops don’t even have that amount of stock. The lucky ones who happen to get in before 12 noon most are faced with empty shelves.
If we want Grenadians to shop for a week so they dont have to come back two and three times clearly this thought process was done spontaneously and not throughly.
He me out . I clearly see there was a pertinent need for the 24 hr curfew however the shopping reroute and a single refueling station clearly did not work. Just take a look at the images on the news and social media. I do hope the process can be revised.
Through it all i must commend the Government for taking a bold step to isolate and minimize the risk to we Grenadians.
These measures are, in fact, necessary. Here in Nova Scotia, fines have been imposed: $1000 for individuals gathering publicly in groups of more than 5 people. Shops that are supposed to be closed will be fined $7500 if they open. We, also have been advised not to leave our homes except for essential groceries. It only makes sense that people shop for a week’s worth of groceries.