SASCHA WIL­SON

More than 400 cus­tomers, many of whom were pen­sion­ers seek­ing to change their cheques, were at­tend­ed to at one com­mer­cial bank in San Fer­nan­do on Day 3 of the Stay-at-Home mea­sures.

In an­tic­i­pa­tion of the large turnout of pen­sion­ers, how­ev­er, pre­cau­tion­ary mea­sures were im­ple­ment­ed at Re­pub­lic Bank, at Low­er High Street, San Fer­nan­do to en­sure so­cial dis­tanc­ing to re­duce the spread of COVID-19.

Mark­ings were placed on the pave­ment in keep­ing with the COVID-19 so­cial dis­tanc­ing guide­lines for cus­tomers lined up out­side the bank. A tent was al­so erect­ed out­side the bank with chairs to ac­com­mo­date the pen­sion­ers. On­ly a lim­it­ed num­ber of peo­ple were al­lowed in the bank at a time.

Po­lice of­fi­cers and the bank’s se­cu­ri­ty al­so as­sist­ed in en­sur­ing that cus­tomers com­ply with the so­cial dis­tanc­ing guide­line. Across at the Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment So­cial Ser­vices Cen­tre in San Fer­nan­do, peo­ple were not main­tain­ing so­cial dis­tanc­ing. Through the bur­glar-proofed door, the se­cu­ri­ty and staff spoke to cus­tomers and al­lowed on­ly five peo­ple or less in the build­ing

Branch man­ag­er Davy Sama­roo-Singh said the tents were erect­ed specif­i­cal­ly for their el­der­ly cus­tomers.

“We just try­ing to have this prepa­ra­tion in place for the pen­sion­ers to­day and hope­ful­ly to­mor­row in an ef­fort to try and pro­vide some kind of ac­com­mo­da­tion and as well main­tain­ing so­cial dis­tanc­ing stip­u­la­tions.” How­ev­er, she said get­ting peo­ple to stand on the marked off ar­eas on the pave­ment has been a chal­lenge.

“Peo­ple are not ad­her­ing to it so you have to con­tin­ue to go the line and tell peo­ple to main­tain the dis­tanc­ing.”

Al­though non-es­sen­tial busi­ness­es re­mained closed, there was an in­crease in the num­ber of pedes­tri­ans and ve­hi­cles on the streets com­pared to days one and two of the Stay-at-Home re­stric­tion. San Fer­nan­do May­or Ju­nia Re­grel­lo ap­pealed to mem­bers of the pub­lic to stay in­doors.

He was al­so con­cerned about video clips of peo­ple still at­tend­ing limes and house par­ties.

“I am mak­ing a spe­cial ap­peal to peo­ple please de­sist from do­ing this, you talk­ing about sav­ing lives. That kind of reck­less be­hav­iour is un­ac­cept­able,” said the may­or.