The Tribune

WHEN the country shuts down again on Wednesday, through the Easter Weekend until it returns to 24-hour curfew status on Tuesday morning, it will be an experience few of us will have experienced.

The restrictions we’ve had to deal with so far will be magnified, just as they were at the weekend past. There will be no going out. There will be no places to go out to. No stores will be open. No gas stations to fill your tank. No bars or restaurants.

The Tribune will continue to report – and a skeleton staff of essential workers in BPL and WSC will keep the nation ticking over while police and defence force officers stand guard.

People rushed to the stores yesterday to make the preparations for such a prolonged closure. That will likely happen again today and tomorrow – and we can only urge people to follow advice on social distancing. The stores themselves need to be firm on this too – to protect the staff and to protect their customers.

It’s not likely to be the only such shutdown either – the list of shopping days by surname notably left off weekends, and Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis signaled that we would have regular shutdowns for the rest of the month in an effort to stop this virus.

In other words, get used to it. It will be hard. But it is necessary.

For what is the alternative? To let the virus spread freely? To let it infect people young and old? Already among those diagnosed with the virus has been a nine-year-old girl. Already, five lives have been lost.

The virus itself does not discriminate between rich and poor – as the news that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had been moved into intensive care because of the virus shows.

Poor people will however be most affected by the shutdown. People who can’t afford to stock up easily for prolonged periods indoors. People who might have depended on double stamp schemes to make it through the month.

For those people, the government needs to do all it can. It must work with volunteer organisations such as Hands For Hunger with experience in seeking out those who need aid and delivering it. It must recruit the expertise of those who helped after Hurricane Dorian.

We must find ways to help those who are most vulnerable to get through this. But we must get through this.

The alternative is simple, and it is horrible – that people will die. If we don’t isolate and stop this virus leaping from one person to another then it will kill more.

Isolation achieves one thing: it denies the virus the chance to spread. That’s why we’re doing it. So abide by the rules, even though the days may seem long. Make the most of the time with your household. By doing so, you save lives.

It’s going to be a long week. But we’re doing this to give people longer lives. That’s a deal worth making.