The election has come and gone. A new government will take the oath of office on Friday and get down to the business of running Trinidad and Tobago’s affairs for the next five years.
Top on the agenda for the new government no doubt will be getting the economy going at a time when COVID-19 poses a more significant threat to the lives of citizens than ever before.
With community spread here, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley’s new government has a full plate ahead in dealing with preventing spread in the new wave of the virus while getting nationals back to work and stimulating economic growth.
Consider the consequence of another lockdown: more business closures, more job losses, increased social unrest and crime, billions more for social programmes the country can ill afford and possibly intervention from the International Monetary Fund.
This is just not the solution. This country lost billions during the last lockdown and cannot afford another one.
Dr Rowley’s last administration took all the precautions required and this country earned a reputation for flattening the COVID-curve early. Unfortunately, our porous borders, the influx of illegal immigrants and the opening up of the borders to allow people back in has put paid to that. The virus surged again and is now infiltrating pockets of society across the country.
Curbing the new wave will be something Dr Rowley and whomever he appoints Minister of Health will need to deal with in a clear, methodological and concise way. The virus cannot be allowed to continue spreading.
Like T&T, New Zealand was hailed for flattening the COVID curve. That country’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern imposed strict regulations, including closing the borders to almost all non-citizens or residents, for which she made “no apologies.” But yesterday, PM Ardern ordered another lockdown after they recorded their first four new cases, all from one family, in 102 days.
There may be lessons for T&T to learn from the hardline approach taken in New Zealand.
Many business places in this country are doing the right thing by setting up sinks or stations for sanitisation and denying entry to customers without masks.
By the Chief Medical Officer’s admission, wearing masks can help stop the virus’ spread. Dr Rowley, in this new incarnation, would do well to take a hardline approach and regulate mask-wearing—it may be the only way citizens will follow the directive.
Dr Rowley recently spoke about people in San Fernando not heeding the call to wear masks. He would do well to drive through Port-of- Spain and Tobago to see how little regard people have for the call.
The PNM led by example during the election campaign - wearing masks and physical distancing. Now is the time to extend that to the wider community. Make mask-wearing mandatory to curb COVID’s spread. If it’s not stopped the only other solution will be a lockdown and that will mean economic disaster, as Dr Rowley himself admitted that will cost billions more that we just cannot afford.