THE VIRUS BLOWS CHRISTMAS AGAIN
In the Jaws movie, we learned the promotion line: “ Just when you thought it was safe to go into the water”. That is the way all of us feel now that the omicron variant of the covid virus has reared its ugly head around the globe.
In the Netherlands they immediately decided to go back to lockdowns. The overzealous Chinese have locked down city after city wherever there is a cluster, on the premise that this will stop the spread of the virus.
In The Bahamas, the Ministry of Health announced a new set of rules but stopped short of lockdowns and curfews. They fear that the numbers will overwhelm the hospital services in The Bahamas and so they want to stop the community spread.
They now say that you have to get permission from them if you want to hold a gathering which is more than 30 people on the outside and if it is more than 20 people on the inside you have to get permission. Church appears to excepted from this.
The tourism people are pushing back because there is a new requirement that in order to travel to The Bahamas as at 7 January 20213, you will have to have a pcr test whether you are vaccinated or not. The people in the tourism sector do not want anything which is going to retard the growth of tourism
Our position is that none of this stuff has stopped the spread of the virus, really. It seems the best bet is to get everyone vaccinated and short of that it is to get everyone to wear a mask and stay out of large gatherings. However, our view is that your health is a personal decision and we need to start with public education, teaching that it is the citizen’s responsibility to keep themselves well and not endanger the public health.
In the meantime, though Christmas is going to be somewhat subdued, even though it will be better than during the time we were governed by the man who ruined Christmas, one Hubert Minnis. Thank god we are rid of him.