January 26, 2021 — Prime Minister of Barbados, the Honourable Mia Amor Mottley, QC, MP, addressed the nation at 7:30 p.m.
Transcript of the speech (exactly as it was delivered):
[00:00:00] Good evening fellow Barbadians, residents and friends.
[00:00:05] I have done more listening, internalizing and analyzing in the past two weeks than perhaps at any other period of my 30-plus years in public life. I’ve heard appeals made. I’ve witnessed directives given. I’ve seen measured responses as well, believe you me, as rash reactions.
[00:00:23] Only today, I met with and consulted with our social partners. I also met with the leader of the opposition and indeed the leader of the Democratic Labour Party and the former minister of finance as declared opposition interests in our country. I’ve met with our medical officials. I’ve met with the Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners. I’ve observed the functioning of our health care institutions and our health care practitioners first hand. I’ve observed the trend of the spread of COVID-19 across our island. I popped into the hospitals and health care centers, but I spent a lot of time in the labs as I told you on the last occasion. I’ve seen one or two hotels functioning. I’ve gone to supermarkets, hardware stores. I have been all over and I’ve listened, I’ve watched and I’ve consulted.
[00:01:17] It is now my judgment that it is time for us as a people and as a nation to act.
[00:01:23] My solemn pledge to this country on being sworn-in to office as the leader was to seek out and seek after the interests and well-being of the citizens of this country.
[00:01:35] [00:01:35]In the past seven days, we have lost three of our people to COVID-19 in circumstances that it pained me greatly. They didn’t break any law. They did no flagrantly abuse, did not flagrantly abuse any protocol or guidelines. They did not even leave their homes. In fact, I have said that they didn’t catch COVID; COVID caught them. None of the three of them went to COVID. COVID came to them. This has given me sleepless nights and my fear is that COVID will not stop until we as a nation stop COVID. COVID will not stop unless we declare war on COVID, [47.7s] and in fact I would like to add to it dengue.
[00:02:28] [00:02:28]Our fight back therefore must intensify as of this evening, but my words will be empty if they were simply words and therefore it means, it means it needs more than that. The action and support of all right-thinking Barbadians in this battle. [18.1s]
[00:02:47] And it is for that reason that I started from yesterday consulting with the public health practitioners, with the EOC representations, with the Cabinet subcommittee, with the social partnership today, with the opposition parties and with diverse, others, people.
[00:03:08] I welcome and endorse the appeal by the president of the Barbados Association of Retired Persons in this paper today for seniors, for our elders in this country to stay at home wherever practical and possible. You have heard me say so over and over because they are most vulnerable group. I want to speak to you directly. You need to protect yourself. And importantly, I’m saying to you, we need to protect you and we shall.
[00:03:39] Accordingly, I am endorsing and strengthening the requests of BARP for all persons over the age of 70 years old to remain at home for the next three weeks unless absolutely necessary, to leave to go in search of medical care or in dire circumstances to purchase food supplies or medicine. And in those cases, if you can reach out to family or persons who are close to you, then let you do so. And why do I say dire circumstances? Because later in this address, I will outline what we shall do as a government to make sure that those elderly persons living alone or without access to someone reliable to run critical errands will be assisted by us all. And furthermore, over the course of the next few days, my ministers and different government agencies will also reach out and clarify after further consultation with different elements of the social partnership – what are the specific details that we will ask you as a nation to follow.
[00:04:42] For now, let it be noted that all persons over 70 should remain at home and unless urgent circumstances warrant otherwise. Urgent in this instance does not include funerals. I want to stress that, but in any event funerals and other events will come down to where they were with respect to earlier protocols at our most extreme, with respect to funerals and weddings.
[00:05:10] So, with our seniors at home, how is it that they are contracting the virus? It is because many of us who are younger have moved away, regrettably, from the PPE fundamentals, from the basic fundamentals we were taught, which we mastered over the course of the last nine, ten months. And you’ve heard us talk about it over and over. You’ve heard us talk about washing our hands and keeping them sanitized. If we don’t have soap and water, use the hand sanitizer.
[00:05:42] We talk about times when persons would come home and they would take off your outer clothes and leave them at the door and then go inside and go straight to the bath. During the by-election, I did it night after night after night after night. And the truth is, even in my own instance, over the course of December and early, late November, I perhaps myself didn’t stop at the door to do what I was doing before.
[00:06:10] So I understand it when it happens across the board and I understand that it is natural. I liken it very often to when you go to the ocean and you put your foot in the water and it is cold and you say, “Lord how I going take this?” And then you go in the water and after the first five minutes, all of a sudden your body becomes accustomed to the temperature. The truth is we become accustomed to most conditions and unless we are reminded of it, unless we are focused on it, unless it is innate habit, then it becomes difficult to maintain it. And we get it, but we now have to recommit as a people to all of those things that we were doing before to ensure that we can truly protect those who are our elders, as we were doing earlier when we started off.
[00:07:00] It is only when we do that at home and on reaching home – when we do what we have to do, that we will make it better. But after we leave that, what about when we’re at work? What about when we’re in circumstances where we are relaxing? It is what we do at those moments that count as well: when we are on the block, when we are doing other things or exercising with other people; what we do in the supermarket; what we do in the bus stand; what we do in a minivan or the bus itself – these things all matter, and that’s what makes this whole thing difficult to endure because it doesn’t admit of our dropping our guard and as individuals, as human beings, we just sometimes, as I said on the last occasion, we have to breathe.
[00:07:47] We have to be more diligent in the use of our masks. And I want to speak to this for a moment because we believe that masks are only appropriate when we go to somewhere where we don’t know people at all. What we are seeing when you listen to Minister Bostic, is that in some households, especially where family comes over to visit others, masks should still be remained – we can’t enforce it in the house for you, but you have to do it for yourself, because the only person that you are harming when you don’t do it is yourself.
[00:08:19] And in a sense, this talk this evening is as much about the adoption of personal responsibility as anything else. And I’ll come back to it because when we became independent, we did a wonderful job of telling people about our rights, but we didn’t do as good a job of reinforcing what our responsibilities are. And as I’ve said on so many occasions, if we left a house unattended to, then it would start to fall apart on its own because we’re not maintaining it. Similarly, if we don’t exercise responsibility first to ourselves, our bodies, to our families, to everyone in our immediate environment, our work colleagues, then we put them all at risk.
[00:09:05] And I can understand the notion of COVID fatigue. There’s a point at which everybody across the world, not just here, fedup with COVID. And at that point it would mean that many people would drop their guard and say, “Let me take a out here. Let me try a thing here. Let me socialize. Let me take off this mask for a minute.” But we don’t know when that one time is going to catch us. Yes, visitors came here to get away from the stresses in their own homeland and they to drop their guard. And I think we all know that. But we gain nothing at this stage by not going forward with a renewed commitment honoring and respecting our protocols. Some of them dropped it. A lot of them maintained it. Some of us dropped it. A lot of us maintained it. But this thing requires the majority of us to adhere to the protocols. We hope all, but at least the majority of us, if we are going to get away from the onslaught of it. And this is not just in Barbados, we are seeing it not just in the region, not just in the Americas, across the UK and Europe, across Africa, across the entire world.
[00:10:20] So, what does that mean? We have to act and we have to pause for a while to get our train back on track.
[00:10:31] We have to fight COVID-19 as the cunning enemy that it is. It’s invisible. It comes upon us without us seeing it. We don’t know. We can’t see it. If we knew where it was, we’d lock it out the houss. But regrettably is coming into the houses, as you’ve heard from Minister Bostic.
[00:10:49] All of us, therefore, will be called upon to play a part in the national repair program. It is local, as I said, it is global. And Barbados brand, yes, has been damaged, but we will also get a chance to repair it in future. That is not our concern now. Our concern is Barbadian lives. Our concern is minimizing the numbers of persons who will go into ICU. And let me say up-front that fortunately for us, we have no pressure on our primary and secondary intensive care facilities at Harrison’s Point.
[00:11:27] Similarly, we have no difficulty across the board, but we do have some numbers that have been rising in the tertiary unit. And what is the tertiary unit? That is a place where people go who are not showing bad symptoms and for the most part, no symptoms, although we have learned that in some instances when people tell you that they have no symptoms, if you question them sufficiently, then you hear, “oh shoot, I really couldn’t taste nothing,” or “I had a nosebleed,” or there are so many other things that we are learning that COVID presents itself with, in terms of symptoms, that we don’t naturally associate with COVID, but may well be COVID.
[00:12:10] And that is why we are launching the war that we are launching tonight against COVID, in our communities now. But before I get there, I want to start with those who are coming to our land because we have made a determination after consultations as to how we will treat to this. First and foremost, persons visiting Barbados as Barbadians coming home, as Barbadian residents, as persons who are long-stay residents but not Barbadian, as Welcome Stampers, as visitors, tourists. We love you. We welcome you. And the truth be told, we need you here. We really do. But we also want you to respect and adhere to our protocols and other regulations and accordingly therefore effective February 3rd, all persons desirous of visiting Barbados shall be permitted to board a plane only if, as has happened before, they are in a possession of a negative PCR test, but I want you to listen to me carefully – taken no more, the test taken no more than three days prior to departure. And I’m making this clear because in some instances people have been coming with a test result dated three days before. We want the tests to be done three days before, because that way we know that you fall within the 72 hour category.
[00:13:33] But it doesn’t stop there. We will also introduce in Barbados, a mandatory rapid antigen test on arrival because those tests pick up persons who are positive and who can be pulled out immediately for any further action. And that takes care of the period of time of additional risk between when taking the test between then and the point of arrival.
[00:13:58] But then we don’t stop there either. We are then saying that beyond that, once you have a negative test, you will then go to a Government-authorized quarantine center where you will then spend – and whether that is a free one or whether that is one where you pay, you will then spend a minimum of five nights before a PCR swab is then taken to determine whether you are suitable for safe exit from that facility.
[00:14:28] If you are positive with the rapid antigen test, then you must go immediately to Harrison’s Point for assessment, because obviously you have, as others who have tested positive, to be assessed by the doctors to ensure that they can appropriately categorize where you are. And I say so because there is a view that a PCR or antigen test is just a simple issue. It is not. The doctors have insisted on assessment of patients when they have tested positive so they may appropriately determine the type of care and the type of facility that is needed.
[00:15:05] So the two major changes as they relate to persons coming into Barbados are the mandatory antigen tests on arrival and the extension of mandatory quarantine from two nights to five nights for all visitors to Barbados.
[00:15:19] I want to say that we also asked the Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation to speak to the airlines because we recognize that we will need to reduce the number of flights coming, in order to ensure that we meet reality, and let us be real. Once I finish tonight, there are not many persons who are going to willingly want to come to a country that is going to have an extended curfew, as we will. And I will get to that very shortly. But equally, let us also be real. We can’t shut down completely because we are an island and there is no way any of us in this country can predict the combination of permutation of instances or opportunities or needs that we will have to deal with and as a result, we keep the airport and air flights – travel open, but we minimize significantly the numbers.
[00:16:11] Already, as we have spoken, our numbers have dropped significantly since the beginning of the year and we are more seeing persons leaving the country, as I said, and we need to ensure that they can do so as we require them to.
[00:16:27] As it relates to our own people, to citizens and residents of Barbados, we have already acknowledged, Mr. Bostic did on Saturday, that there is community spread in Barbados. And I pause here because twice from this same chair, while I explained to you that there is an international definition for community spread, that the international health practitioners and organizations use, that I felt like others of you that it had already spread to the community, even if it could not be called community spread. It is for those reasons that the government put in place from since the 31st of December, measures that would have been more onerous than you would otherwise have expected because we were already starting to contain.
[00:17:14] Luckily, we have seen a trend downwards generally, but by the same token, we are conscious that we are still at a stage where at any point it can get beyond our control. I am grateful that the number of beds that, for example, are being used in the primary and secondary care ICU, as I said to you, is less than 20 percent of what we have. But I’m not going to wait for it to get to 50 or 60 percent to come to the country and take action, because that would be folly. And that would literally be to put at risk the lives of those who are being treated.
[00:17:52] I regret, therefore, to inform you that we have also now, in addition to the community spread, been informed that there are traces of the new COVID variant in tests conducted on the island as well. Minister Bostic had indicated that ten samples were sent to CARPHA. And indeed, we have now received results that suggest that three of those ten samples returned positive for the UK variant of the virus. We are only now one of several Caribbean islands and several countries across the world that now has this variant. Some may say it is spread and it spread and in fact was inevitable. Others may say otherwise. The fact of the matter is we are at the point now where we believe we have to act and act decisively. And it is for that reason that I have consulted many persons and have listened to hundreds of views and perspectives. Having analyzed it all, I am now prepared to give an outline of a course of action which the government of Barbados will take effective immediately, but with some measures being implemented over the course of the next week or so.
[00:19:08] I want effective immediately, even before we get to the formal measures for every Barbadian to understand that while I’m giving you notice of what we intend to do from next week, I want each of you to treat it as if you were looking at reducing your footprint, your interaction almost immediately. The country needs to pause.
[00:19:34] And to that extent, therefore, even though there are things that you will still be permitted to do and timelines that you may still have access to, between now and the 3rd of February when the new measures will start, I’m asking as far as possible for you to treat it as if it was happening tomorrow. We’re not doing it tomorrow because we are satisfied from experience and after consultation with all of the persons that I spoke to, that to do it suddenly will create a level of panic which will have more deleterious consequences than benefits to the nation. But having said that, to the extent that anyone of you wants to join me, anyone of you wants to join me and the others in ensuring that we reduce our footprint – then I say so, start from tomorrow because it is one by one by one that will make that difference in terms of the risk, as well as to the opportunity of the virus to find itself in somebody and to continue to use that person as a host to continue living.
[00:20:40]We are also going to require – we have already required since the beginning of this year, the mandatory wearing of masks in public buildings and public transport. We are going to require from the 3rd of February in our Directives that the wearing a masks in public places shall be mandatory unless in the case of individuals who are either alone or in the means of exercise, or who around them have either a medical excuse or who are in the midst of speaking as I am. But you saw me start with my mask. You saw me take it off. When I finish speaking, I’m going to put it back on. [40.8s]
[00:21:22]So that we know and we’ve heard from doctors George and Best and doctors Forde, how having and wearing masks reduces our chances significantly. And I want to refer to the fact that many of the businesses that shut believing that because one person had COVID in it, were able to ensure that they were able to reopen in quick order because in many instances, protocols were followed. And once the protocols are followed, we know that you have at least an 80% chance of fighting off that invisible enemy – COVID. So, I’m asking us if we are walking on the streets and other people are in close proximity, wear your mask. If you are out in a public place, liming, and I’d hope that you’re not doing much of that from next Wednesday, wear your mask. We accept that if you’re exercising or if you are literally in the midst of speaking or if you have a medical reason and a letter from your medical practitioner, then that is a sufficient excuse that meets the Directives that we have. [65.6s]
[00:22:28]But my friends, effective February 3rd, it shall be an offense not to wear a mask in public spaces as well. If you cannot wear the mask or the face covering by reason of medical, physical or mental illness or disability, we will understand that. If you’re eating or drinking or taking the medication or speaking, as I said, we will understand that. But let us try to do the right thing and let us do it because, one: you are protecting first and foremost, yourself; secondly: the ones that you love; thirdly: the ones that you work with and; fourthly: all other Bajans that you’re interacting with. [37.6s]
[00:23:07]We will give more details as I’ve said earlier, on everything that I’m saying here tonight during the coming days, because I don’t expect you to take in all of this in one go down so. And we will have another chance to reinforce, reinforce, reinforce. [14.3s]
[00:23:22]My Cabinet, therefore, and Ministers will be speaking to the country in the coming days on different issues. Tomorrow, the economic ministers will meet with the social partnership – private sector again, to be able to work out and refine those areas of activity that ought to be exempted. For example, we accept that farmers who are taking care of livestock, if they don’t take care of the livestock, they may die. So you need to be able to do so. In some instances, farmers who are dealing with crops also have to be out there for limited periods of time. So those communications and consultations will take place with the economic sectors and the private sector in the morning. [38.4s]
[00:24:01]And the Unions and Ministry of Labour will also have an opportunity separately to raise any other concerns that may be of particular interest to them. We’ve already had the private sector unions recognize with us that we may need to put special arrangements in place for those who will continue to work during this period of time, who may need, for whatever reason, to be tested because we accept that they themselves need to be able to have access in and out in quick order if something happens. [30.4s]
[00:24:33]Trust me, my friends, we will give you everything that you need to protect yourself. We will make the decisions where essential activity has to continue. The Water Authority, the National Petroleum Corporation, the Light and Power – all of those are essential activities. The manufacturing entity dealing with the feed for livestock. All of these are essential. But everything else that is not essential, we need to pause. [25.7s]
[00:25:00]We also are asking you immediately to get back to arming yourselves with the hand sanitizers as a way of life – all of us. And I am saying to all the women out there, when you pick up your handbag, pick up your hand sanitizer. I’m saying to the men, when you pick up your cell phone, pick up your hand sanitizer. Let the cell phone and the hand sanitizer become a Siamese twin. Wash your hands and your face as often as possible. [24.4s]
[00:25:25]And you know why this is important. This morning, I chaired for the World Health Organization and the Food and Agricultural Organization and the Plant Health Organization and United Nations Environmental Program, a Global One Health Initiative that I’m sharing with the Prime Minister of Bangladesh. And it is about fighting what we call a slow motion pandemic. I’ve said it to you I think before, that we are fighting those viruses that we get in hospitals and elsewhere, that the antibiotics are simply not curing anyway. And when we have had family that have died in the hospital because the antibiotics are no longer resolving the infections that they have, it is only going to get worse and worse and worse. But the one point that was being made over and over by all of the experts on the panel for the two days yesterday, and I’m sure it will come up again tomorrow, is that we need to make sure that people take proper steps to sanitize. It is so basic that it is almost frightening that that is the strongest recurring message that we have to give to human beings across the world. And the problems that we will face from that don’t only come from antibiotics, it comes from an overuse of disinfectant. It comes from an overuse of antifungals, antiviral medication, all of those things it comes from. So I’m saying, please let us wash our hands and sanitize them as much as possible. [93.5s]
[00:27:00]Now, I also want to make the point that effective tomorrow, I want to encourage you to plan out some shopping for the next two weeks, if you can. And why? Because effective February 3rd, when we go into a period of advanced restrictions, pause, lock-down, call it whatever you want to call it, national stay home as far as possible – we are going to make sure that supermarkets will only be open for certain times as I’m coming to. [32.2s]
[00:27:34]While we don’t want you to go a rush at supermarkets, and I am begging you now, we did it earlier in the year. You’re not helping yourself. You’re not helping the persons next to you. There’s no need to panic. That is why we are not announcing anything tonight. But tomorrow or Saturday or Sunday. What we are saying to you is that we want us to plan out our business and to get ahead of this. We want to give our health care system and our health care professionals a chance not only to fight this, but to win this battle, because if they go out in to the community without being able to do things, then they are going to have issues because there’s simply not enough of them to deal with the persons who may be affected by the virus. [48.3s]
[00:28:24]This lock-down that we are calling, this pause, this national reset is going to be necessary in order for us to give ourselves, also, a chance to go into the communities house-by-house-by-house, and to do systematic household testing. And why? The doctors have represented to us that the earlier you can find persons in households who are symptomatic, the better their chance of recovery. One of the difficulties with the three persons who regrettably passed is that they came too late. And if we can go from house-to-house determining who has symptoms – we’re not going to test every single person in the house, but after you are asked questions, once you are displaying some form of symptoms, then they will use the rapid antigen tests. [53.7s]
[00:29:18]We have asked the University of the West Indies to work with us, along with the Ministry of Health in order to have this done effectively. And I’ve asked the chairman of the Cabinet subcommittee, Mr. Walcott, to be in charge of this process of the testing to ensure that with the requisite number of persons moving across the island and let us be real, the best organizing principle in the island is Polling Districts. We have 300 Polling Districts. We need at least 300 persons going into the community on a parallel track so that over the course of 10, 12 days, we are able to get into as many houses as possible; ask persons through a questionnaire that is already being used by the Queen Elizabeth Hospital with respect to symptoms, to get a sense of those who have symptoms and then to use the rapid antigen tests to ensure that we can pick out of the community and take for treatment immediately, all persons who are positive.
[00:30:20]When I say we are going to wage war on COVID, I mean it. And we need your assistance and that’s one of the reasons why we don’t want a lot of people on the road moving about, because we want to be able to find people in their communities, and if it is that they have a sore throat or they have no taste in their mouth or all of the other symptoms that the PSAs will come and show you, then you need to tell us and let us rule out other things. Let us rule COVID through the rapid antigen test, which is 98%, 99% accurate for persons who are symptomatic. [33.8s]
[00:30:55]The house-to-house health check initiative will be explained further over the next few days by Minister Walcott and the University of the West Indies and the Ministry of Health. But we need to make that major intervention, my friend, to ensure that we get to people early rather than to have patients presenting themselves to the hospital and then passing away within 24 hours of that, presenting themselves. When I talked to you about going to buy your grocery shopping earlier, it is because I don’t want you to panic. But we have and will give you – you have Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday – seven clear days to go and do as much as you can. But thereafter, then we need to look and see what are the arrangements in place. [47.4s]
[00:31:44]Let me say straight off too, there’s a lot of food in this country. There’s a lot of food in Barbados. There’s enough food for months. So there’s no need to rush, no need at all to bore and get nowhere to the front in no line to get no thing. You can get what you want, but effective Wednesday, February 3rd, from midnight – 12:01 as the Attorney-General would say, we shall commence a 15-day period of national pause. [25.1s]
[00:32:10]So from the 3rd of February until the 17th of February – I do not like the word, as I said, lock down or shut down, but if you prefer to use it, use it. I prefer to stay home. Stand in your house, as far as possible. Stand round your yard, because the other war that we are waging is in fact the war against dengue, and who does that need? That needs you. That needs the person living next to you. That needs everybody in your house because we need to take the bush out from around our houses. I’ve said it over and over. We need to empty all the tots or the cans or anything that collecting water. And there are some plants. I had to do it in my own garden that I discovered from the public health people, naturally collect water in the base of the plant and true enough, when we checked the plants were breeding larvae. So that we need to make sure that we do all of the things even as we stay home, that will make a difference to the quality of our life because believe you me, we’ve lost three people to COVID-19, but we also lost three people to dengue. [65.3s]
[00:33:16]And therefore, when I say to you and I joked with Lil Rick last night as he called me to tell me that he was hosting a program in tribute to one of the persons who lost their life from dengue, that I told him that I want all Barbadians to join us in this war against COVID and dengue. This isn’t about people alone who are accustomed to hearing GIS ads, this is about every every, every Bajan. [26.3s]
[00:33:43]But let me come back to the specifics, because I want us as far as possible to try to stay at home. Work, obviously, remotely from home for the Public Service and those private sector entities that can accommodate work from home remotely should continue. [17.3s]
[00:34:01]And, you know, most of us will continue to work as we have been doing. But where the businesses’ social and commercial activity requires persons coming into stores or retail outlets, the Ministry of Health has been very, very clear that only supermarkets, pharmacies, gas stations, but not the convenience stores of gas stations, just the gasoline, diesel and oil and car-related stuff should remain open as we go forward. [31.7s]
[00:34:34]Similarly, all other activities other than those that will be exempted as essential activities, whether in the public or private sector, will continue. Most construction projects in the public sector will stop. We will continue on Highway 1 because we have a lot of empty holes, deep trenches that are collecting water and that equally can be a threat to the community and the society and we will obviously have to allow water authority and NPC and Light and Power to fix any breakdowns or any repairs that need to be done during this period of time. [34.1s]
[00:35:09]With respect to all other persons, let us stand home. Let us treat it as stay home days generally, particularly the first week. We are also going to ensure that supermarkets, while they remain open from 8:00 a.m. in the morning to 3:00 p.m. during the week, we are going to ask that supermarkets close on Saturdays and Sundays because they, too, have workers who need an opportunity to be able to catch themselves and who need to be able to reduce their risk. [29.6s]
[00:35:40]Similarly, however, pharmacies will remain open on weekends and gas stations will remain open on weekends. As I said, all of these details will be put together formally for you. But what we are essentially doing is saying to you, if you don’t need to leave home at all, do not leave home. For the supermarkets, I asked you – go over the next few days and where you can, purchase. For those who can’t afford, we understand and we will make sure, as I have said, that there will be significant numbers of care packages that will be distributed – not this week, but next week towards the end, for all persons who are literally in need of it, whether through the Welfare Department, the Household Mitigation Unit, Members of Parliament or the political parties, having met with both the leaders of both major political parties today. [54.6s]
[00:36:36]We are going to work together to make sure that we get there. There is generally a curfew that will be from 7:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. in the morning. Other than those who have to be on the road and who have the requisite passes. Those who are not, I don’t need to tell you that you will be subject to some kind of penalty if you break the curfew. You can go out on the step in your yard. You can walk around in your back yard, you can do all of that. But try to stay in your perimeter between 7:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. and generally for sure where possible during the day. [37.6s]
[00:37:14]In terms of banks, banks will not be open from the 3rd of February until the 9th of February. They will reopen on the 10th of February. So we’re asking you to do your banking before. Pursuant to that, we agreed this evening in the Social Partnership that the banks will start to cash pension checks that are dated February 1st from as early as day after tomorrow, Thursday. [28.3s]
[00:37:44]Similarly, the Post Office and the Chamber of Commerce has agreed to also ask supermarkets to also cash those pension checks dated February 1st from as early as Thursday. We do accept, however, that there may be some people who don’t get this message, and that is why we are not starting this process of staying home from the 1st of February, but from the 3rd of February to give everybody an opportunity to be able to do their banking business and to do whatever is necessary. [32.0s]
[00:38:17]But I’m asking you, please, as I said, let us please together, work to ensure that we minimize the number of activity. There should be no driving around, idly, no hanging about idly, no bussing a lime. Look, let us pretend, because if any of us got sick, we would have to keep low and we’d have to recover. [19.2s]
[00:38:37]And I want us to almost play as if we’re sick for the next three weeks. This first week is preparation. You’ve got to still do some things to go and do. Just like when I was going for an operation, I had to go get my tests done. I had to go and see what I needed to carry, what you’d need to buy, anything that you have to carry to the hospital – sanitary stuff. Most people got to buy new pajamas or nightie. We go and prepare ourselves because we know that for seven days or for fourteen days or if we break a foot – you’re a fella on a motorcycle, you break your leg, you know that you can’t do these things. So I’m asking us, please, to prepare ourselves for this pause and to allow us to ensure that we can give our health care professionals the best chance at saving lives in this country and reducing the pressure on those who may have to go in to ICU. [53.8s]
[00:39:32]My friends, I’m saying to you as well that we are satisfied that in spite of the fact that we have police and Island Constables, Special Constables, COVID Monitoring Unit, that we also are going to recognize that there is need for compliance, particularly when we start but work and for those who are still carrying out essential services. To that extent the government has agreed to establish Chief Compliance Officers with units for COVID-19 to make sure that in large government departments in particular, whether it is in the hospitals, whether it is in the police and protective services, whether it is at the ports of entry, whether it is ultimately when we reopen in the markets, all of those things that we need to make sure that people are complying with all of the protocols. [57.1s]
[00:40:30]And I’ll be fair, for the most part, businesses in Barbados have literally been complying with the protocols. Where we have dropped our guard, as the Minister of Health has told us repeatedly, has been in the communities, on the ground, in the shops, on the blocks, all of those areas. And we will make sure that we aggressively enforce going forward because the chances of persons getting ill when we don’t enforce are simply too great. [29.8s]
[00:41:01]Now, I’m asking you as well to recognize that even with this aggressive enforcement, it needs your help and your support. They’re going to be some difficult decisions that we’ve had to make. Markets are going to have to close for this period of time. Vending will have to shut down for this period of time. Public transport will have to go back to 60% of seated passengers in order to make sure that we don’t put undue pressure. And why all of these things? Because that is the only way we give ourselves the best chance to fight it. [34.7s]
[00:41:36]We can’t do 100% lock-down. Nobody in the world can. But we have to go as far as we can. And to that extent, shops also will not be allowed to be open for any purposes whatsoever in communities. [12.7s]
[00:41:50]Now, we know that that is going to be hard and I’ve already given instructions, therefore, and this morning, the Minister and the Ministry of Finance Ryan Straughn, met with Minister Symmonds, Minister Weir, and Minister Humphrey to look at the whole issue of vending and Minister Forde, because we recognize that we will have to put some kind of package in place for vendors and for shops and for different types of persons. The details of that are still being worked out and that is why the meeting with the social partnership members is taking place tomorrow. [33.0s]
[00:42:24]But I want to tell you upfront, we’re not going to be able to give people what they want. We’re going to have to be able to give people what they need. And it will not be the greatest amount, but it is a little something. And I say so conscious that if you get sick, you couldn’t go to work anyhow and nobody would be paying for you, especially if you were a vendor or if you had a shop. So we know that people have had to put up with difficulties in the past. But for this period of time, the government will try to meet you part of the way by making sure that we can get something to you. We don’t know if we’ll be able to get it to everybody before we start or during while we start, but we will get it to you. [43.2s]
[00:43:08]And for the record, those who are wondering about what is happening with the persons from Old Year’s night, I asked the National Cultural Foundation to collect the data. As soon as we have it, the payments will be dispatched with respect to that. [13.3s]
[00:43:22]With respect to restaurants and bars and gyms, all of them will be closed for the two week period. I know it is not going to be convenient for many, but once again, from the 3rd of February, 12:01 to the 17th of February, we’re asking for those things to close down. Why? Not to spite anybody but to give this nation the best chance at seeking to defeat COVID and we will continue to focus on what is necessary. [28.6s]
[00:43:52]I want to say all along, we’ve always used the principle of brakes and accelerator, brakes and gas, and we continue to use that because we have to monitor and measure risk. And I keep making the point that you don’t go and put your hand near fire because, you know, the risk of being burned is high. From the time we got community spread and that we now and now today that we know that we have the variant, it imposes on us a greater responsibility to manage that risk more effectively. And equally for us to minimize the chance of people catching the worst aspect of it by having to go into ICU are regrettably passing away. [48.6s]
[00:44:41]What are the objectives? To save lives, simply. To save lives and to minimize serious illness. And I have every confidence that Barbadians will work with us to get us to that point. [13.9s]
[00:44:56]You know, over the course of the last few days, I had cause and I want to thank Archbishop Gordon for sending me a copy, a gift of a book called Let Us Dream – the Path to a Better Future by Pope Francis. And it resonated with me, particularly because I am a great fan of Pope Francis as well, but the essence of the humanity of what he reflected in the book with respect to the difficulty of whether you save lives or livelihoods is one that has resonated. And at the end of the day, and I can speak to this, particularly because we came to office to save this economy and we had to take steps that were difficult and we had to ask everybody in this country for a sacrifice. [48.1s]
[00:45:46]It is burning me to the core that I am going to have to start from scratch and that you are going have to start from scratch again with this economy. But in doing so, guess what? We are recognizing that we are protecting our people. None of us have the capacity to bring people back to life, but we have literally the chance to work together as a nation to bring our economy back so long as people are living and so long as people are safe. And it is for that reason that the mantra that we used and continue to use of safe people, safe work, safe country has to be our guard. [38.8s]
[00:46:26]Human beings are not perfect. None of us are. Governments are not perfect. But we must continue to strive to do the right thing. There are many who would want to cast blame at this point in time and to point fingers. That is their right. We don’t have such a luxury. We ask you to recognize that now is not the time for blame. Now is the time for us to focus on protecting the lives of people and on saving ourselves. [26.0s]
[00:46:52]Many of the people who are equally frustrated or who may not see themselves immediately in harm’s way ought to remember that even the manner in which business has been conducted in the last two and a half weeks in this country is unsustainable. You cannot have businesses shutting down for a day or two or half a day because somebody tested positive and there’s this mad frenzy as to where people go. We need to bring the country back to a level of stability and to recognize that there will be sacrifices, there will be difficulties and jah know, we got to rebuild this economy from scratch again. But I feel we can do it. That’s the difference, because having done it once, I know we can do it twice. But what I cannot do, what I cannot do is to bring back those three people who have passed. [55.3s]
[00:47:49]I ask all Barbadians to recognize that we are in this together. Life has always been valued in this country. There are many nations across the world who have lost hundreds, thousands and in some instances millions. We’ve lost 10. But for us, that is 10 too many. We can’t guarantee that we won’t lose others, but we’re going to guarantee that we fight like hell not to lose any. [33.6s]
[00:48:25]What will it cost us? Probably a significant amount, probably close to $20, $25 million dollars over the next two weeks in all other kinds of ways and probably deeper in terms of wider economic impact. But is it worth it? I want to tell you yes. I want to tell you yes. [24.5s]
[00:48:51]But if I say yes alone, it’s not going to win the battle. The battle this time will only be won when the majority of all of us say yes. And I ask you tonight, from where I sit here at Ilaro Court to join us, as I asked the leader of the opposition, the leader of the Democratic Labour Party, there may be much that divides us politically, but I’m satisfied that we live in a country where we are united in the saving of Bajan lives. [30.0s]
[00:49:22]There may be much that divides other people, but I want us to choose to save lives as our first objective. Our second objective must be to make sure that people do not get as seriously ill to end up in ICU, which means catching them early enough and working with us. If you know that you’re not feeling well, now is not the time to hide in your house and hope that you are going to feel better. Now is the time to step forward. That is why we’ve also asked the hospital and private doctors through BAMP to take the antigen tests so that they can test people because let’s get real, nobody goes to a doctor if they are not sick in this time. Nobody picking up and just go for a checkup in this time. [53.3s]
[00:50:16]So if you’re going to a doctor or hospital, let us apply the antigen test. It is not as good as the PCR, but what it is good at is picking up positives where people have symptoms. And I’m asking us therefore to work and to go where those things happen. [17.1s]
[00:50:33]As it relates to vaccines, you have heard that I have been in deep conversation, you’ve heard about the letter that I’ve written to Prime Minister Modi from India, but I’ve also been in deep conversations with many others. Out there, truly has been like the Wild, Wild West. But the conversations with the Indian government are promising. I say no more at this stage, but have every assurance that we will come back to you with details as soon as we are in a position to give full and greater details on that and other sources from which we are seeking to procure it. We are confident that we will get it. We are confident that we will be able to get as many available for Barbadians as possible and let us be real, a vaccine will not stop you necessarily from getting it. A vaccine however, it will stop you hopefully from dying or from going into ICU and making it perhaps a little more acceptable, like a common cold that all of us have become accustomed to dealing with throughout our lives. But at least that brings a sense of normalcy as opposed to the dreaded fear of death or serious illness for those, who, as Dr Forde reminded us today, can look well up until this morning, but then can find themselves in serious condition by evening time. And that is the dastardly nature of this virus. [81.0s]
[00:51:55]So, my friends, this is a moment for our country to determine where we go. The one thing we know is that we never come out of a crisis the same way. We can come out better or we can come out worse. I’m asking you to choose to allow us to come out better. [17.6s]
[00:52:14]But I’m also asking you to reflect on this one thing, as I said. When we became an independent nation, we told people about rights, yes. We have as a people to understand that we are our brothers and sisters keeper. Pope Francis calls it fraternity. I prefer to talk about Ubuntu. You’ve heard me say it over and over. I am because we are. It is only in that sense of protecting and reaching out to each other that we have anything that is worth maintaining. [29.3s]
[00:52:44]And to that extent, I am saying to you that maybe, just maybe in the same way that we have recognized that this pandemic has come to give the Earth a chance to breathe, that maybe this pandemic has come to also reinforce in us what truly matters in terms of our humanity and to make us recognize that which all of our leaders have said from the time of independence, maybe not sufficiently strong, but they have said nevertheless that we have to take responsibility first for ourselves, for our families, for our community and for our country. [36.2s]
[00:53:21]I ask you, my friends, to join us at this juncture in our nation’s history to choose to come out of this crisis better, to choose to wage war on this invisible, cunning enemy, called COVID and that of dengue through the mosquitoes. And to do so collectively because I am confident and I have seen it as we fought to rebuild this economy. When this country acts together as one, there is no battle that we cannot win. We may be bruised. We may be battered, but there is no battle that we cannot win. [33.5s]
[00:53:56]For sure, the economy is going to be seriously affected. But as we discussed with the International Monetary Fund Fiscal Affairs Mission up to yesterday, we must spend what we will. We shall keep the receipts and be accountable but what we are not going to do as Madam Kristalina Georgieva has said over and over in my discussions with her, we will not sacrifice people at the altar of expediency or at the altar of simply trying to hold onto a dollar that is likely to be lost because of the level of deaths in the long run. [33.7s]
[00:54:30]My friends, join me in this effort. It is going to be a difficult few weeks, but I have every confidence that we shall use it for renewal. We shall use it for a recommitment. We shall use it to be able to go in the houses and find the persons who need help. We shall use it to be able to ensure that we can strengthen our resolve and strengthen ourselves to make Barbados safe from COVID, from dengue and to make you have the possibility of a bright future yet again. [30.7s]
[00:55:02]I thank you and may God bless our nation and may we work together in this effort.
End of speech