2020 challenged how we live – PM

Prime Minister Mia Mottley believes that amidst the turmoil of the COVID-19 pandemic, there are valuable lessons to be learned from the country’s experience over the past year.

She was speaking from her residence at Ilaro Court during an address to the nation, in which it was revealed that there were ten new positive COVID-19 cases, five of which were of major concern to the Ministry of Health. The country is now on a nightly curfew from midnight to 5 a.m., until January 14.

“There are many things that happened in 2020, and we all know them, but the things that I wanted to talk to you today about, and if I had the full opportunity to do so, would have been related to the lessons that we have also learnt from 2020,” Prime Minister Mottley said.

“2020 taught us that regardless of how much money you have, regardless of where you live, regardless of what you do, that you have to take care of yourself. [It taught us] that money doesn’t matter if you are sick; that living in a big house don’t matter if you are sick; that if you can’t share with one another it matters not; and that at the end of the day it has brought out in us a respect for every human being, every job, whether your job is a supermarket worker.

“Whether the job is a doctor, whether the job is a police officer or Customs or Immigration officer, a port health worker, or a nurse, all of these jobs matter. For this society to function well, for you to be peaceful, for you to be happy, we all must work together,” Mottley added.

The PM said that while there would be more discussion on the lessons from 2020, 2021 was also coming with a level of uncertainty.

“2020 taught us a lot of lessons, including that the Earth needed us to pause for the Earth to breathe again. And if there is one difficult part about 2020 and COVID, it is the fact that we cannot drop our guard…

“2021 still has a lot of uncertainty and it will take time. The Ministry will talk to you about the vaccines but for now, let use this time to commune with who we love and who we care about to be peaceful,” Mottley said.

She said the current COVID spike served as a reminder to all that the virus was still active, and warned Barbadians and tourists to follow the protocols or they would face the courts.

“Perhaps it has come on no better day than the last day of 2020 to remind us that this thing is still very much with us and that we need persons to take the appropriate actions. I need to say to Barbadians we can get through this, but I really need you to cooperate. I also want to say to those visiting that I do not expect any difficulty while you are staying with us. We welcome you, but we want you to follow our rules as well,” Mottley said. (IMC)