Curfew extended for another 14 days; longer beach hours coming
The current 11-hour night-time curfew which is scheduled to end on Saturday, May 23 will be extended for an additional 14 days.
This is according to Governor Augustus Jaspert who told members of the media on Thursday, May 21, that Cabinet also decided to increase the amount of time allotted for persons to visit local beaches.
“Cabinet has been working diligently to plan and agree to our ongoing approach including the phased reopening of our borders to Belongers, residents and nationals from the 2nd of June. We have also agreed on plans for the next 14-day curfew period which will come into effect from this Sunday,” he said.
“Our plan is to maintain the night-time curfew at 7 pm to 6 am which will allow more elements of our economy to safely reopen, as well as we would add a few more hours to the time allowed on beaches,” Governor Jaspert added.
Boat restrictions to be relaxed
The Governor further said that Cabinet has also been working on relaxing boat restrictions to begin the process of gradually reopening the maritime industry.
He said: “We are also working on plans to allow boats to safely move within our waters, we are restricting the moving across our national boundary lines to prevent anybody from coming into the territory.”
“We have restricted boat movements within the territory so that the Police and Customs can be clear about who is coming into the territory, but we are looking at protocols to try and reopen the maritime industry internally to some extent,” the governor further said.
While stating that more details will be forthcoming, Governor Jaspert said Cabinet is also looking at opening other sectors within the economy shortly.
Copyright 2024 BVI News, Media Expressions Limited. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed.
If you open the waters for internal travel it would be impossible to monitor for vessels coming from outside. There simple isn’t enough manpower.
Question: When the COVID-19 Vaccine (#060606) is ready, what will be the VI Government Policy be?
Bill, that is when they will reveal themselves for who they really are… Our friends or yours?
6:00 in the mornings is a bit late for people who like to get up early and walk for exercise before getting ready for work.
..and 7.00pm is early for those that prefer to exercise after work. Its a balance, we have to make temporary lifestyle changes as we walk a path back to the new regular!
New regular my A@@. Why don’t you people think for yourselves and stop letting others control you…
Everyone who says the “new regular” ( apart from me of cause) is a f**king retard, stop parroting the evil MSM from america , think for yourself’s i know its new territory for most of you but this bull is tragic
Pot calls kettle black. News at 11.
Covid-19 doesn’t give a sh*t about your ideas
Exactly. At 6: 00 am the sun is already in the middle of the sky. People are stressed and need to exercise. NO BEACH and NO EXERCISE in the mornings.
It really says a lot about you if you can’t exercise without a beach.
Reading comprehension problems?
Its painfully late period! At least open 5:00 am , goodness gracious
Why do we always only have a plan for what we are going to do next week.
What about next month.
Next quarter!
Because this situation has never happened before. As more is known we need to be able to adjust to suit, as case numbers may rise or decline.
The VIP had no plan to begin with
Neither did the rest of the world! Where have you been the last few months? Asleep?
you sound STUPID. in this unprecedented time you feel the need to pressure a government that has NO IDEA how his could have been done as no government in the WORLD has ever dealt with this. SELFISH!!!! ONE STEP AT A TIME is best!. #sickening
Thinking ahead is leadership.
Only one step at a time is backwards.
Sure you have to factor in many scenarios. But this week to week management without any idea for the future or any hope of recovery is pathetic.
Firstly, credit where credit is due, Mr Fahie has done a fantastic job of keeping BVI safe. I like to complain about politicians, but I can find little fault with his approach. Now that we are in a position where we have one active case, identified through contact tracing, rather than unknown community spread, BVI is in effect in a COVID19 free position. There is frankly now no reason why most of the restrictions are being continued. Schools should be opened (and kept open through the summer to make-up for the learning missed) and all businesses too. Life within BVI should go back to an immediate normal. However, we should not allow private boats to be used, the enemy is at the gates so we need to keep it there (and I have a boat and am happy to be kept from using it for now).
This virus will come back to our shores when the border is opened, there is no doubt and we can expect a cat and mouse of lock-down and relaxation of it, over the next few years. But if the government utilises all the community’s goodwill now by needlessly keeping in place restrictions it is likely that next time round people will be less willing to give up their freedoms.
Gov – you couldn’t plan a pi** up in a brewery!
Tired of your fear mongering, power trips, and the odd delight that you and your Chief of Police seem to take in choking the very livelihood from a majority of our people here in these islands.
Get your f-ing act together, and do your part to get our economy back open. Your priorities, and your designation of ‘essential businesses’ baffles and boggles even the dumbest amongst us!
Give us some long term planning please, these curfews mean NOTHING! They do NOTHING! Extending them only satisfies those you have scared the hell our of, while serving to pi$$ off the rest of us!
Being outdoors, breathing fresh air, going to the beaches is amongst the best and most healthy things to do. But you power hungry control freaks seem to get off on ordering and belittling the little people!
You ever paused to consider the cause and effect of your actions through your single mindedness? Deaths and other issues that come from this lock down and crushing the livelihood of a bulk of us? Depression, fear of going to hospital because you have scared the hell out of everyone rendering people that need treatment in worse health, physical abuses, mental breakdowns, destruction of the family unit, etc, etc. Thought of that? One ‘known’ covid death here, while we have had multiple other deaths unassociated.
Tell us what is happening, what’s the plan for next week, next three months, something, give us some hope, help us plan, our businesses prepare, some guidance that you even have the vaguest idea you know what you are doing or talking about! Why so secret Sir! Instead you have added multiple players more of red tape, and an already over bloated and soon to be unpaid civil service.
Maybe I am alone in my opinion – I’m sure the ‘likes’ and ‘dislikes’ will show accordingly. But I myself Sir am fed up of your lip service!
You are so right!
It’s only fear these so called leaders produce. While they should be producing hope and inspiration.
Our borders are severely undermanned. I think some of the potentially defunct public service positions from other areas should be moved into border security. At least a 100 of them.
Excellent point.
The VIP had no plan to begin with
they had a better plan than the ndp
That’s why the VIP plan is a secret to us all now. The scraps of a plan they bringing leaves a lot to be desired. Our eye balls will drop out looking for a VIP plan that makes any damn sense.
What does the curfew achieve or aim to achieve? It makes no sense at all to keep the curfew, other than to satisfy these petty tyrants’ desires. If they had their way, they would have a curfew without the virus.
What does the further restriction on time at the beaches achieve or aim to achieve? Are people more likely to catch corona after lunch? Is it because they cannot be trusted?
The governor and the premier do not trust the people of the BVI.
If there are no cases, remove the unconstitutional restrictions, which are disproportionate and a breach of human rights and liberty.
Therewillbeareckoning.
Some of you just need to chill. Mr Fahie us doing an excellent job. Do you think he makes his decisions by himself. He listens to advice from the health professionals. Those countries that opened too early are seeing a resurgence of the virus. Schools in Europe began and some had to close because of cases in the schools. Let us be patient and cooperate with our leaders.
Not our leaders,your leaders thank you.
your story about europe is completely made up. Especially because the virus doesn’t rage under children.
Stick to the facts or shut up.
He clearly makes decisions by himself. That is one man with far too much power in a supposed democracy. But yeah, you keep on believing his intentions are pure and he’s just trying to keep you safe. You are part of the problem.
Cabinet is making them decisions, not one man…
Hopefully not the same health professionals diagnosing asthma.
Go to the [other] News site on the article about “being stuck” with the Governor as they put it (we all know why) and click “like” on the comment about him being the best governor (you’d see it turn to over 23 likes) but when you initially go on there are zero likes …
…exactly is the point of the extension of the curfew? What is the science behind it? Please explain.
We need to stop taking this assault on our liberty lying down. The government has no right to dictate when and where we can be in our own country. This is not about safety – it is about power. Wake up!
How can u be ready to open borders when we hav not been open internally fully yet I think all businesses should be open first to get some of the monetary problems fixed with these people first right down to bars and so on . If the borders open that’s bring more cases to the island and that gonna be a step backwards I think this is just a control thing going on
Boating industry is done.
No tourists allowed, charter boats are headed south or hauled, and boats can’t travel to USVI and back.
Adios to that sector…
How is it done, why would it be done? Did the people sell their boats? Did they unregister their vessels from the VI Shipping Registry because the have no plans of returning to the BVI. The BVI is one the best destinations for sailing in the World. This is just a pause. Disney World and most sports are currently cancelled nobody is saying that is the sporting industry or Disney World is done because we all know that it will be back when the situation changes.
Disney and sports have budgets of billions, 10 years ago disney was pulling in 27 billion a year profit , if you got a boat you only rent a few weeks a year then your going to suffer when you can’t rent it out at all,
I propose that recreational sailing be allowed between 6am to 7pm daily. NO motor boats only sailing boats. The only exception for motor boats are the local ferrys, police, customs, pilot boat and licensed fishing vessels that are actually fishing.
So, if my Cat has a prop, can I move under your plan? What the Hell difference does it make if I’m under power or sail?
There is no pleasing everyone. No matter what the Government or who ever else put in place, some people would still not be satisfied and complain about everything yet contribute nothing to the solutions. It appears that some people don’t care about anything else but themselves. I personally think that the Government is doing a good job and threading lightly as this pandemic affected and is affecting the whole world. No one knows what’s going to happen in the next week or the next month and yet some people want everything that happened in the last 2 months to just be forgotten and thrown out the window. Open back up everywhere and lift all curfews. Let everything go back to ‘Normal’. SMH….wake up people,nothing is going to be the same again. Everything changes from time to time and this pandemic has changed the world as we know it. We are all entitled to our own opinions, lets just respect that. And may God continue to watch over the BVI….cus only he knows how much we need it.
Make it PERMANENT Gus. I’m enjoying peaceful nights without the ridiculously noisy scooters. Now please just include the roosters in the curfew. LOL.
Ofcourse the beach is a good place to to take a walk and exercise I Agree to the extentions Hours
When will the stripjoints reopen?