PM Mottley Institutes “Pause” in Barbados due to Increased COVID-19 Deaths
Mia Mottley
If Belizeans think that our COVID-19 lockdown a few months ago and the current curfew and other restrictions seem severe, you may want to hear what the government of Barbados has just announced. Following the death of a health care professional, Prime Minister Mia Motley told Bajans there will be what the government is terming a “Pause” in all activities which will last until the end of the month. She says such drastic measures are needed because island residents have become too complacent and are growing too used to COVID-19 deaths.
Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados
“If we cannot get tired of hearing about people losing their lives, who have we become? There are literally none of us who can say we are not without some level of guilt in terms of dropping the ball. None of us. All of us at some point drop our guard. The problem is that COVID don’t respect the dropping of the guard. It don’t respect it at all. And therefore, if we are going to get out of this I am appealing to people to literally let us just chill, let us just stop. Let us just do what we have to do in the next eleven days. The government will extend the circumstances, the restrictions of the pause, until the 28th of February. We will, however, open mini marts Monday to Friday. There will be no opening of super markets on Saturday or mini marts on Saturday or Sunday because we are asking people to just cool it and stop.”
Barbados is about to begin a strict weekend lockdown. The Royal Barbados Police Force has also warned Bajans not to attempt to open shops or crowd the beaches and that there will be zero tolerance for those not wearing masks in public.
