ONLY ESSENTIAL BUSINESSES CAN OPEN FROM TODAY FOR THE FIRST SEVEN DAYS IN THE FIRST INSTANCE
Written by Fuze Team on August 26, 2020
As the new curfew order takes effect today, with only essential businesses required to open, Governor Augustus Jaspert in a statement today said that as a Cabinet they debated long and hard on how to avoid a full lockdown, whilst ensuring the safety and protection of the people.
Governor Jaspert said these decisions have been driven by one motivation; to protect people.
He said that their strategy as a Cabinet throughout has been to put safety first – to be safe rather than sorry and they have to balance the need to keep people safe, to keep the economy going as much as possible and the need for essential services to operate.
The Governor said that they had to make difficult decisions, and he knows they will affect people’s livelihoods, their income, businesses and way of life.
Governor Jaspert said they need to use this chance they have now to try to halt the virus and that is why they are moving to restricting businesses to only absolutely essential areas.
He said they are also asking people to restrict their movements only to those that are essential and the safest thing they can do is to avoid contact with other people as much as possible.
Governor Jaspert said that the full list of those essential services will be published on the Government’s website and companies seeking passes for employees should submit a list for essential workers to the Health Emergency Operations Centre on ministryofhealth@gov.vg.
He said that all requests will be validated and electronic passes will be issued by the Deputy Governor’s Office, and lists will be shared with the Police. Passes are valid only whilst persons are travelling to/from or performing essential duties.
Persons must carry photo ID with the pass. It is an offence to be out during the curfew hours unless authorised and this could lead to prosecution.
