The successful and incident-free staging of three recent open-air mass events may be used as a yardstick for future undertakings on a similar scale in the prevailing COVID-19 environment.
While not disclosing details of recommendations being submitted to Government regarding the production of other big public gatherings, Head of the COVID-19 Monitoring Unit Ronald Chapman revealed on Wednesday that consideration for permitting similar productions was well advanced.
“That is being considered right now and those considerations are pretty advanced. The public would be hearing more about that pretty soon if the recommendations are approved,” Chapman told Barbados TODAY on Wednesday.
Over the last weekend starting on Saturday afternoon, Barbadians witnessed the official opening ceremony for the Golden Square Freedom Park in The City, a national religious service of thanksgiving held at the Garfield Sobers Sports Complex, and on Monday night into Tuesday, the historic transition from a monarchial system of government to a republic as Barbados’ first President Dame Sandra Mason was installed. This was followed by the Independence Day military parade and cultural presentations.
Later on Tuesday, the presentation of National Independence Day Honours was held at Golden Square.
“We didn’t have any issues this weekend as far as I know. None has been reported. As you would appreciate, the Republic celebrations went on and there were a number of protocols put in place,” Chapman recalled.
The monitoring unit head pointed out that one of the protocols was that the persons who took part were all vaccinated and those who were not vaccinated had been tested prior to the event taking place to ensure the level of risk would be significantly reduced.
“Everything went smoothly. So far, there are no reports of any incidents or anything,” he added.
As far as the Christmas season is concerned, Chapman said he has not seen many applications for the staging of events, just the usual general meetings.
“I anticipate that this week it will pick up so we will see how we go from there,” he stated.
He said he hoped any events which were approved would go according to plan with full compliance. He said continued adherence to the protocols would ensure the public’s safety.
Meanwhile, health authorities will be addressing the media tomorrow on lessons learnt and the way forward as a result of the successful staging of the weekend events.
emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb
