Indoor dining permitted on all islands except New Providence, Abaco, Paradise Island

As of Friday, September 25, 2020

By RASHAD ROLLE 

Tribune Senior Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE latest Emergency Powers (COVID-19 Pandemic) Order permits indoor dining to take place on all islands except New Providence, Abaco and Paradise Island.

The order gives effect to the shifts Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis announced in the House of Assembly on Wednesday.

The maximum seating of restaurants can be fifty percent of maximum occupancy with a minimum of thirty square feet per person.

Social gatherings of more than twenty persons at a private residence or facility remain prohibited, however.

Dr Minnis announced on Wednesday that Grand Bahama and most Family Islands can resume normal commercial and additional social activities.

The curfew has been discontinued for Andros, Acklins, Berry Islands, Bimini, Cat Island, Crooked Island, Eleuthera, Exuma, Inagua and Mayaguana.

“While a curfew will no longer be in effect for these islands, health officials recommend that a 10pm to 5am curfew remain in effect for Grand Bahama,” Dr Minnis said this week during his contribution to the debate to extend the Emergency Proclamation to October 31.

“Health officials also recommend that beaches remain open daily in Grand Bahama from 5am to noon for the time being.”

New Providence also remains under a curfew.

Dr Minnis also announced that gyms will be permitted to open on all islands subject to guidelines approved by the Ministry of Health.

He foreshadowed changes to the country’s quarantine requirements, saying a plan will soon be presented to “remove both domestic and international quarantine, related to travel.” His comment reflected the difficulty officials have had enticing visitors to the country if doing so requires them to "vacation in place" for 14 days.

Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism Travis Robinson said Friday that Tourism Minister Dionisio D’Aguilar will announce the new requirements for visitors some time before October 15, the date tourism officials hope to begin reopening the sector.

John 3 years, 6 months ago

Who would actually sit in a crowded or even not do crowded restaurant to eat and drink? Look at the Corona numbers and the means of infection

lobsta 3 years, 6 months ago

That's exactly what needs to happen, people need to start doing it by themselves. The pointless micro-management is counter productive because it absolves the population of responsibility. The 'closed beaches' are now even more stupid than they were to begin with.

tribanon 3 years, 6 months ago

The two buffoons, Minnis and Wells, are now simply copying with a small amount of lag time whatever is being done in Florida to fight the spread of Covid-19 without any recognition of two very important differences between Florida and New Providence:

1) The population density of New Providence is much greater than that of Florida, even much greater than the metropolitan area of Miami; and

2) Unlike New Providence, Florida does not have a greatly under-resourced, completely dysfunctional and totally over-whelmed public healthcare system.

The governor of Florida has recently thrown his hands up in the air and adopted the herd strategy for dealing with the deadly Covid-19 virus. Adopting such a 'give-up' strategy for New Providence will undoubtedly result in many more Covid-19 deaths per capita for The Bahamas compared to other countries, assuming our corrupt government discontinues manipulating the true number of Covid-19 related deaths as they did in the case of Hurricane Dorian.

And North Americans are not stupid. If and when they do start vacationing abroad again in great numbers, they will stay away from the more densely populated destinations that do not have an adequate healthcare system. That certainly does not bode well for the return of our country's tourism industry down the road.

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