Call for back-up

Director of the COVID-19 Monitoring Unit Ronald Chapman wants support from police officers when they are carrying out their duties.

Disclosing that some public service vehicle (PSV) operators were aggressive towards members of the unit, Chapman said they would be seeking the assistance of members of the Royal Barbados Police Force (RBPF).

“We can do it on our own but we want to be able to have the police force with us when we do these kinds of things because sometimes persons can get a little agitated when their livelihood is affected. So we want to be able to have all of our I’s dotted and our T’s crossed before we continue with the process,” Chapman told Barbados TODAY.

He however, admitted that he was generally satisfied with the improved behaviour of PSV workers.

Chapman said members of the unit had reported that drivers and conductors were now adhering to the protocols.

Just under two weeks ago a driver and conductor were ordered off the road and suspended for a week for protocol breaches on the minibus on which they were working.

Chapman said since then they had not pulled any additional PSVs off the road.

He cautioned though, that tougher penalties would be coming for those workers who continued to flout the law.

“We have seen some significant change in terms of persons wearing masks and so on. They are still the odd few who have not been wearing masks so we are now putting measures in place to deal with those and some pretty tight measures as well. I’m not going to expose all of those measures now, you will see them as they unfold,” Chapman explained.

“The last time we had this conversation I would have said a number of things and persons adjusted their behaviour to suit and then once things had changed they went back. But for the most part, we are seeing a lot of guys wearing their masks now and it is a good thing. Even on Saturdays and Sundays the guys are still wearing their masks.”