Temporary COVID-19 measures to allow for worship, ushering in the new year – Health Minister
With the implementation of new temporary measures outlined by the COVID-19 task force, Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony, M.P., is reminding citizens to stay “vigilant”, as COVID-19 is still with us.
Minister Anthony, during today’s COVID-19 update, made reference to the new one-day measures and explained why the government thought it necessary to implement these protocols.
“The reason why we extended the curfew hours for tonight is basically [because] there are lots of churches that have appealed to us. You know, people want to go out and do prayers and so forth,” the minister revealed.
Dr Anthony went on to note however, that while this extension was given to the curfew time, persons must be on their ‘Ps and Qs’ as the virus will not sleep over the holidays.
“We must not let down our guard. We should keep social distancing, we should sanitise our hands and obviously we should wear a mask…if we don’t do that then there is always the possibility of getting infected,” he noted.
Further, the minister advised partygoers for the year- end celebrations to ensure that their environments are ones that are conducive for protection against contracting the virus.
“For those persons who are going out to parties…one of the ways of at least trying to be safe is to make sure that you are in an environment that is very ventilated…and of course preferably for persons to have on their masks…If people do not abide by these rules, then the possibilities are that they can be in contact with persons who have COVID and they can get infected,” Minister Anthony explained.
The National COVID-19 Task Force on Thursday evening released a series of new protocols to govern year- end activities that will take place across the country. These measures are specific to the extension of the curfew time from 12AM to 12:45AM.
Many religious bodies and event promoters have lobbied for this brief relaxation of the measures and the government has heeded the call.