Updates from Minister of Home Affairs, Information and Public Affairs, Wilfred Abrahams; Minister of Health and Wellness Jeffrey Bostic and Senator Lisa Cummins, Minister of Tourism and International Transport.
Minister of Home Affairs Wilfred Abrahams
- Current directive (No. 10) expires on June 7
- New directive (no. 11) runs until June 29
- Supermarkets, mini marts and village shops to reopen on Sundays
- Automarts to also resume full service on Sundays
- Spectatorless sports allowed to resume subject to protocols
- Competitive sports, including horse racing, can resume subject to receiving permission from Covid-19 Monitoring Unit
- Crop Over is some time away
- We have to look at the pros and cons
- I can’t say too much on Crop Over
- We are closely monitoring what is happening in the country
- A lot is riding on the vaccines
- A lot depends on when we reach that target for herd immunity.
- The horse racing fraternity came with protocols are were above what is required
- The requirements without spectators at the Garrison will allow for about 400 to 500 people present
- Provisions are in place for online betting
- If given permission, only people connected to the day’s events will be at the Garrison
- We are comfortable with the protocols from the horse racing fraternity
Minister of Health Jeffrey Bostic
- Positivity rate as high as 5 per cent at March 6
- Trending downwards since then.
- Positivity rate lowest 0.5 per cent during the last week of May.
- Cumulative incidents target 25 per 100 000
- Last two weeks of May 20 cases per 100 000
- May 22-June 4 15 per 100 000
- 557 tests
- 1 positive case, non-Barbadian in-transit
- Been doing well. Still some pockets of resistance, yielding a few cases in single digits
- These are the focus for Government.
- Our main concern today is another case in a secondary school.
- Developing family cluster of 3 at The Lester Vaughan School.
- Day 5 of the case. By tomorrow see where it is leading to.
- All children must be complimented.
- I want to make a special appeal to children and parents
- The challenge is post school interactions
- We are seeing groups of 30 to 40 people congregating at bus stops not wearing masks and not physical distancing
- I am appealing to you to do the right thing
- 81 000+ people received the first dose of the vaccine
- 61 000+ people received the second dose
- This is important. In some countries, many people have received the first dose and not the second
- Don’t hesitate, vaccinate
- We still have community spread
- There are one or two cases where we cannot find the link
- Community spread is not widespread
- We are not saying that competitive sports cannot take place
- Sports associations and organisations need to meet with us and tell us how they plan to proceed
- We are still awaiting vaccines from the COVAX facility, Africa and other sources
- The World Health Organisaton recently gave approval for two vaccines from China
- The Government of China has agreed to donate some vaccines to Barbados.
- We are trying to get vaccines from four different sources
Minister of Tourism and International Transport, Senator Lisa Cummins
- We are preparing to receive our first cruise ship
- Celebrity Millennium will arrive at the Bridgetown Port on Monday at 11 a.m.
- It is home porting in St Maarten
- All passengers are required to have a negative PCR test three days prior to arrival
- 100 per cent of the ship (passengers and crew) will be fully vaccinated.
- Cruise ships will only be allowed 50 per cent capacity
- For the summer months, there is not a lot of traffic out of the UK
- Canada will resume flights to some Caribbean islands later this month
- US demand is extremely strong
- Earlier this year, some flights came in from the US with six people
- Flights from the US are now full
- The US market is looking like the strongest for the summer
