Last week’s reinstatement of a 12-hour curfew by the one-month old People’s Progressive Party/Civic political administration is being reported in the Sunday September 6 Caribbean Business Report as a microcosm of a wider ‘running for cover’ by Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries that had, just a few weeks ago, moved to return to conditions of normalcy after it had appeared that the intensity associated with the earliest wave of the pandemic had somewhat abated.
In reporting that an earlier 12-hour (0600 hrs to 1800 hrs) curfew has been re-implemented, the Caribbean Business Report said that exemptions were being allowed for “essential workers including parliamentarians, healthcare officials, the disciplined forces and the Guyana Revenue Authority,” among others.
The standout disclosure in the official announcement was that “as part of measures to ensure strict adherence to COVID-19 protocols, charges will be imposed on individuals who fail to wear face masks in public spaces.”
Since the advent of the pandemic large sections of the society, including revellers and sections of the business community have responded with indifference to the official measures. There have been frequent well-attended ‘hangouts’ on sections of the Georgetown seawall, on which occasions there is sometimes blatant evidence of police indifference to these transgressions. This newspaper has also reported on makeshift beer gardens in coastal villages ‘doing business’ often in communities close to police stations. Towards the end of last week, the vehicles of patrons whose pockets can afford its prices, could be seen parked outside one of the city’s well-supported hotels which operates a popular bar.
Not least among those who are beginning to express frustration over the on-again-off-again curfews are business premises in the capital that had begun to continue trading ‘after hours’ at the end of the first curfew in an attempt to make up for lost patronage but are now compelled to cut short their trading day again.
While the reinstatement of the latest curfew has come with a warning of charges being imposed on persons who fail to wear face masks in public, significant numbers of persons frequent the city without face masks and there is no persuasive evidence of the enforcement of the threat of prosecution.
Enforcement measures being instituted under this second regional clampdown aimed at pushing back the spread of the virus is being pursued, reportedly, as part of a wider initiative to evade the worst excesses of the pandemic which up to around a week ago had infected thousands of people in the region and killed around 300.
Concern over fears that the pandemic could wreak further havoc amongst countries that are ill-equipped to combat its worst excesses were accentuated last week with an official announcement that children attending state schools here were not returning to schools last Monday, at the end of the longest period of holiday in the school year, raising the spectre of schools remaining closed until at least the end of 2020.
