Submitted by Paula Sealy
A two-week circuit-breaker lockdown could be introduced in England after Christmas to combat the rise of the Omicron coronavirus variant.
Following the advice of scientific advisers, The Times has reported, government officials had prepared draft regulations that would reintroduce restrictions similar to those in step two of that country’s roadmap out of lockdown last spring.
The number of daily COVID-19 cases recorded in the UK hit a new record high on Thursday with 88,376 reported new infections (https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/uk-covid-daily-cases-latest-record-omicron-variant-pandemic-b972434.html). That record was surpassed within hours. On Friday there were a further 93,045 lab-confirmed cases recorded in the UK (https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/uk-covid-daily-cases-latest-record-omicron-variant-pandemic-b972434.html). This was a third consecutive record daily total. Meanwhile, six fixtures in the latest round of the English Premier League have been postponed due to COVID positives.
The UK is one of Barbados’ primary tourist markets. The tourism and hospitality sector is greeting the Brits and their pound with open arms after the island’s tourist season officially began on Wednesday, December 15. This week also saw news of striking nurses, members of the UWU, become the centre of national attention. What is the genesis of the impasse?
A former Minister of Health (a Government Senator) has chided the head of the Unity Workers Union (an Opposition Senator) but … how many of the nurses’ longstanding issues were allowed to fester under his ministerial stewardship? What insight of the genesis of the impasse would Dr. Walcott have?
What we will lament is the inevitable importation of the Omicron variant – in exchange for foreign exchange. Thirty pieces of silver?
What the government should do is spell out the condition of the nation’s finances and explain how desperately we are in need of the tourist arrivals.
Not the IMF.
Not the BERT Monitoring Committee.
Not the “Social Partnership”.
The Prime Minister recently chastised industrialised countries for their role in climate change. The PM lamented their lack of consultation with small island developing states. Climate justice is needed but the PM has to appreciate her government’s failings where consultation and social dialogue matter. How much dialogue was there before an agreement was brokered for a bail-out for the manufacturers of school uniforms? The private sector seems to have greater access and success with dialogue.
So is the Social Partnership one of George Orwell’s lost works? Or is the new republic sans Constitution?
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