Marko,Originally Posted by Marko
A fact? It is your opinion, yes.
Let's look at the facts. Last week PM Holness stated that his cabinet is laying the foundations for plans to reopen the economy. Just yesterday the government added the construction industry to the list of exemptions so that workers can come and go freely to their contruction site during day or night.
The lockdown, not lockdowns, is only for the parish of St. Catherine and was extended for 3 days until May 1st. This is to give the health agencies a few extra days to track down and test the remaining 50 BPO (call centre) workers from Alorica. That single business accounts for 227 of Jamaica's 364 cases of Covid. That is well over half of all the cases. The call centre workers virtually all reside in St. Catherine thus the need for the island's single lockdown. It did not work out as initially planned by the government, measures were eased and talk of an island wide lockdown pretty much ground to a halt. If it can't work in one parish, trying it island wide would be futile.
The current 6pm to 6am curfew runs until May 6th, and the prevailing opinions are that it will be eased. Even with the curfew, supermarkets, pharmacies, corner shops, hairdressers & barbershops, restaurants (take out for the most part) and even the lotto shops are all open.
A few hotels are still operating for the few remaining "stranded" visitors, but most closed due to no new visitors.
Jamaica has survived hurricanes that have killed people, wiped out buildings, water, electricity, phone service, roads, delivery channels grinding the entire island and the economy to a halt for months or longer. Jamaica has come back from much worse disasters. All infrastructure is still in place.
The talk we hear around town from many people is that this maybe a necessary "reset" of society. Things are moving slower now and some like the change. If you are not shopping, there is really no place to go other than the beach. Covid hasn't effected the beach enviromentally except to make it the waters cleaner and more abundant with sea life.
Perhaps if you were actually on the island you would be aware of these facts.
