Some Changes to COVID-19 Regulations
Kareem Musa
New COVID-19 measures will come into effect on Sunday, July fourth. The new measures are being implemented in light of the increase in COVID-cases. Minister of Home Affairs Kareem Musa outlines the new regulations.
Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
“The curfew will continue in place; so there will be an extension of the curfew from Sunday to Wednesday night it will remain at ten p.m., but there will be an adjustment in the curfew from Thursday to Saturday night. The new curfew will be eleven p.m., so it is just a reduction of one hour but an important reduction because we have seen where at these various establishments that are operating under the guise like bars and that critical hour is where things get out of control and people start to party, which again, is not allowed under these regulations. In terms of church services, as you know last month we had agreed to extend church service to two hours and we are now cutting back to the one hour church service. And again that is with a fifty percent capacity inside the church. We are also encouraging and I believe we will be putting it in the protocols to cordon off every other pew to get the fifty percent capacity. In terms of restaurants we will continue with the seventy-five percent capacity for outdoor dining. We will also continue with fifty percent for indoor dining but here is the change, we will not be allowing dining inside a restaurant that doesn’t have a free flow of air that is not properly ventilated. So, you cannot have an air conditioned restaurant per se, it has to be a free flow ventilation indoor restaurant. With respect to BPOs, we have been seeing an increase in numbers at BPOs, so we have decided that starting this Sunday there will be a capacity limit of fifty percent inside the BPOs. So this will create more social distancing inside the BPOs.”
The Minister of Home Affairs says that they will be activating justices of the peace to do rounds at business establishments such as restaurants to ensure compliance with COVID-19 regulations.
