If the economic strain being imposed on countries in poor regions like the Caribbean is creating pressures for an accelerated reopening of the business sectors in the respective countries in the wake of the onset of COVID-19, the World Health Organization (WHO) is still urging caution arising out of concerns that a poorly-timed return to ‘business as usual’ could have a disastrous downside.
Last week, as Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley was providing details of a phased reopening of some of the sectors of the country’s economy, the WHO was again issuing an unmistakable caution against a rush to ease restrictions, a move which it says could result in an aggressive resurgence of the malady that is, as yet, far from under global control.
“This is not the time to be lax. Instead, we need to ready ourselves for a new way of living for the foreseeable future,” said Dr Takeshi Kasai, the WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific – a remark that appeared to come in response to indications that the hugely business conscious countries of that region were ‘chomping at the bit’ to get their economies going again.