There’s little debate the majority of the public supports the decision to lift, from today, the few remaining restrictions that impacted some freedoms of gathering.
For two years and two weeks since March 21, 2020, when restrictions were placed on gatherings at public places and restaurants and bars were ordered closed, the country has been under some measure of lockdown—until now.
All that remains from today onward are the wearing of masks in public spaces and the need for a negative antigen test to travel to the country. Within weeks as the Easter holidays end, all schools will be reopened to in-person classes.
This had first been signalled by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley last December during an interview with Guardian Media, as he promised a “brighter 2022” while saying he didn’t want to “throttle the economy” further.
The battle against what has been deemed “the invisible enemy” now continues within a framework of minimum rules set by the State. Without blanket regulations ordering us ‘once more unto the breach’ as a national battalion, we are asked instead to continue doing so as individual soldiers.
This is a new challenge that requires a careful amount of monitoring by those in the health sector.
Already, with home tests kits being used more widely, the official reporting of cases and mandatory quarantine orders backed by penalties have diminished.
The drop in cases reported by the Ministry of Health in its daily updates does not reflect scores of people who, when tested positive, consciously choose not to act responsibly by quarantining at home.
In a scenario where restaurants, bars, cinemas, casinos, party boats, nightclubs and others are no longer required to operate as safe zones, the potential for the spread of cases increases through those who see no obligation to do the right thing, conscious that there are no penalties to bear in the absence of a quarantine order.
The words ‘with great freedom comes great responsibility’, therefore, sound louder today than before.
It’s each one’s responsibility to define and maintain his or her boundaries of personal safe-zoning, particularly in the coming weeks when so many are seeking to exhale in the forms of so-called “freedom parties”.
This wind of change is not one to which caution should be thrown.
If there is to be any indication of the speed at which many are likely to return to large gatherings, we need only look at the turnout at the Taste of Carnival events.
Those charged with epidemiological monitoring within the Health Ministry will no doubt be taking a keen look at the figures from today, but with the return to restrictions only likely in very extreme circumstances, personal care and attention are all we have as individuals now to keep battling the virus.
Those have proven to be good and sturdy armour to those exercising restraint over the last two years.
Now that there is much-needed breathing room for entertainment and leisure after these gloomy years, the bugle we blow today repeats the simple but important two-word warning given by the Prime Minister, “Control yourselves.”