19 COVID-related matters before law courts last week

Head of the COVID Monitoring Unit Ronald Chapman is reporting that 19 COVID-19 related matters were brought before the law courts in the last week.

Chapman said of those 19 matters, there were seven convictions, eight adjournments, and four persons not showing up for court.

He gave the recent statistics at today’s COVID update press conference where those convicted had to pay between BDS$500 to BDS$2000.  Chapman said the persons being taken to court is a reflection of people becoming complacent, and a victim of their own success, as COVID-19 cases continue to fall.

“I want to encourage people to continue to follow the protocols. We are in a good position right now and we want to continue that trend, we want to get better and better as the time goes by. And to do that, we have to ensure that each one of us takes responsibility for our own actions.

“And when we see each other engaging in actions which we know are not to be right, just nudge them slightly and say ‘you know what, pull the mask up’. Reinforce positive behaviours. We don’t necessarily want to be looking to punish bad behaviour, but we want to do more in encouraging positive behaviour,” Chapman said.

Chapman said too many people are not following protocols, including wearing masks. He said that there has also been lapses in protocols in the workplace where he said persons should not be dropping their guards.

In fact, Chapman said that while there has been easing of restrictions at recreational areas, persons must continue to act responsible and follow protocols.

Chapman said: “Now I know that in the past few weeks we have been talking about events, I wouldn’t call it Crop Over, but there are some parties and so on that we are going to allow. Those parties would have a maximum of 150 patrons, and the actual logistics of those parties have not been totally worked out. But what I want to say is we want to be able to treat this opportunity, just like that, an opportunity and the ability to show the world how you can provide an atmosphere of ease and recreation for a country without burdening it with COVID.

“We have an opportunity to show the world not in terms of travel protocols, not in terms of dealing with cases, how we can allow the country to return to some form of normalcy and remain safe. I want to say, COVID is completely fluid, this is something new to all of us across the world, we have never been this way before.

“And because it is this fluid, things change at the drop of a dime so we cannot afford to take our guard down. Nobody wants another lockdown, nobody wants another curfew, nobody wants restrictions, but if we don’t want those things, then we need to follow protocols”.

When asked why promoters were only allowed to host 150 persons at party events, Chapman said the decision was made to start with this number for authorities to be able to manage the risks, including the Ministry of Health’s ability to conduct contact tracing. (AH)