BVI News

New businesses approved to operate! Gov’t limits beach hours and gathering sizes

Additional categories of businesses have now been included on the government’s list of essential services permitted to operate during curfew hours.

These new categories include hardware and building supplies stores, suppliers of hurricane shutters, construction teams with no more than 10 people, restaurants (for takeout and deliveries only), computer equipment and office suppliers, bakeries, laundries (for drop-off and delivery/pick-up only), and faith-based activities such as churches.

These establishments are approved to operate starting Saturday, August 29. Premier Andrew Fahie said Cabinet agreed on these decisions during a meeting on Friday.

Gathering sizes limited to 10

He said Cabinet also decided to limit gathering sizes to 10 persons per gathering.

Intra-island ferries were also approved to continue to operate. They must, however, adhere to the social distancing protocols.

Premier Fahie said Cabinet also decided to amend the Suppression Order to limit access to the territory’s beaches between 5 am and noon. They also endorsed the Minister of Education’s decision relating to online education in the first instance and agreed to review the position of the reopening of schools fortnightly.

“These Cabinet decisions took into consideration not only our ongoing fight against COVID-19 but also our need to always be in a state of preparedness and readiness as we are in the Atlantic Hurricane Season,” Premier Fahie said.

“At this time, I ask everyone to continue to be vigilant … Please remember that in the BVI we have just over 35,000 people, but only eight ventilators, and we do not want to use any of them. Hence, at all times, we must make wise well-calculated decisions. We must keep our guards up. We must practice the wearing of masks, frequent hand washing and sanitising, and social distancing,” he added.

The BVI is under a partial lockdown from 5pm to 5am daily for two weeks.

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28 Comments

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  1. Snoppy says:

    Dictatorship. Control.
    So now they doubling up the people on the beach by reducing the hours. Laughable

    Like 25
    Dislike 17
  2. 2cents says:

    Well they do call it a suppression order! They suppress rights not COVID-19. Need to learn to live with it. Will be around a long time. Need develop herd immunity. Need to protect vulnerable. Need to stop imprisoning healthy. Need to stop killing the economy. Only the sick need to be quarantined not the healthy.

    Like 15
    Dislike 12
  3. Jjj says:

    Fahie is a fu**** killing the island like

    Like 12
    Dislike 14
  4. @snoppy says:

    You didn’t have to but thank you Honourable Premier. Excellent move. Don’t be pressured by people with an evil agenda. People should done prepare for Hurricane from talking fraught.

    Like 9
    Dislike 20
  5. Open the shutters says:

    LMAO. All they doing is flipping and flopping. Don’t tell me it’s because of the hurricane shutters man post that made you buckle lol lol

    Like 14
    Dislike 2
  6. Strrrps says:

    Nooooooo no no noooooo this is not part of the voodoo plan.

    Like 5
    Dislike 2
  7. Not A Clue says:

    So, people get the flu from hanging in local bars. Let the takeout begin. Nobody gets sick from swimming and walking the beaches…shut em down. What a bunch of Ass-Clowns we got posing as Government here. Idiots.

    Like 20
    Dislike 10
  8. Hold Church Service at Beach! says:

    Church is Essential? The place where more COVID has been spread that any outdoor venue? How you figure that? Must be he fake-bishop push for that one. Jesus need mo money ayo!

    Like 18
    Dislike 3
  9. From here. says:

    There is a problem with the tax and NHI good standing report let those good standing staff to go work ( without receiving costumers) and get
    update
    peoples waiting for more than 2 weeks

    Like 4
    Dislike 1
  10. Expat says:

    What are you guys putting in place for the 1st of september for expats returning. NHI, Social Security and Inland Revenue are closed. Also government offices. I hope all those requirements are not necessary now.except a covid test.

    Like 6
    Dislike 3
  11. Avalon says:

    It would appear that the lack of plan is to continue to follow the WHO dictate (UN NWO) to the inevitable culmination of the Covid Vaccine. Whist claiming that all of the measures are in the best interests of the people.

    For anyone who cannot see, the following is not ‘a conspiracy theory’ it is conspiracy fact:
    The United Nations
    New World Order
    Project is a global,
    high-level initiative
    founded in 2008
    to advance a new
    economic paradigm, a
    new political order,
    and more broadly, a
    new world order for
    humankind, which
    achieves the UN’s
    Global Goals for
    Sustainable
    Development by 2030,
    and the happiness,
    well-being, and
    freedom of all life on
    Earth by 2050.

    now is: ECONOMIC PARADIGM SHIFT time…

    Statement from the United Nations, Agenda 21: “Using Covid to harness the power of revolution to change the economy” ……”characterized by a fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres” …… “In its most pessimistic, dehumanized form, the Great Reset may indeed have the potential to “robotize” humanity and thus to deprive us of our heart and soul.” “

    The present vast overpopulation, now far beyond the world carrying capacity, cannot be answered by future reductions in the birth rate due to contraception, sterilization and abortion, but must be met in the present by the reduction of numbers presently existing. This must be done by whatever means necessary”. ~ UN statement

    “A total world population of 250-300 million people, a 95% decline from present levels, would be ideal”. ~Ted Turner, UN

    Like 10
    Dislike 5
  12. say i say so says:

    From the time we allowed all the wet-fetes, clubs, bars to re-open and lifted the 12’o clock curfew we were in trouble

    Like 12
    Dislike 4
  13. Doh says:

    What I’ve been saying all along…

    Finally you people are realizing that this is a dictatorship in the making and this POS is dragging us all into to the socialism pit.

    Be ready to stand with me in the streets to take back the islands before the US invades.

    Like 4
    Dislike 11
  14. E. Leonard says:

    “ At this time, I ask everyone to continue to be vigilant … Please remember that in the BVI we have just over 35,000 people, but only eight ventilators, and we do not want to use any of them. Hence, at all times, we must make wise well-calculated decisions. We must keep our guards up. We must practice the wearing of masks, frequent hand washing and sanitising, and social distancing,” he added. The preceding is a quote by Premier Andrew A. Fahie. The big takeaway for me was the 8 ventilators. While we let that marinate, let’s do a quick recap of Coronavirus (Covid-19).

    Covid-19 is a highly contagious and deadly disease with no cure, no vaccine(s) nor strong treatments. To date globally, there has been approx 24, 892, 543 confirmed cases and 840, 341deaths(John Hopkins). The VI northerly neighbor and major trading partner, the US, to date has had 5,958, 486 confirmed cases and 182,711 deaths. To date our westerly neighbor, the USVI, has had 1,118 confirmed cases; VI, 26 cases.

    Moreover, Covid-19 has devastated many lives and livelihoods, posing serious health risks and impacting jobs and employment. Until a vaccine(s) is develop to provide herd immunity, the best course of action is prevention. Incidentally, the other mode of attaining herd immunity is infection. Through infection, large number of people would have to contract the disease and develop and immunity to it. Many people may die in the process. Over the last 5-6 months, the VI through strong but controversial and unpopular actions have earned some bankable Covid-19 dividends that it must used wisely and effectively. There must be a delicate balance between health vs. economy.

    The VI has limited medical resources and cannot tolerate IMO even a mild outbreak. Thus, as the Premier advised, all effort must be aggressively exerted to prevent contracting the disease to avoid overwhelming the medical system. And with only 8 ventilators, overwhelming the system can be problematic, causing medical professionals to have to decide who gets treated and who does not. Stay well, stay safe and be safe.

    Like 9
    Dislike 3
  15. Bat says:

    Not one of the comments make any sense to anyone that can read and understand what they read.pure nonsense. I didn’t know that this island have so much of dumb people. Now i know.the government is trying its best to help protect us and look at the foolish comments above except for snoppy comment. People are using the beaches mostly at evenings to have gatherings and its to much for the police to handle. What is so difficult here to understand. I have to stop read these blogs now to much dummies writing.

    Like 7
    Dislike 7
  16. Tongue Fu says:

    @ E leonard

    Highly contagious yes. Based on your stats the calculations show that it has a 3.37 % mortality rate. So 97% of people survive COVID. Not saying that we should be careless but overly cautious we should not be.

    Lockdowns do not work. You come out of lockdown and the virus is still there. What we needed was to close down the night clubs and bars as we knew that is where it was spreading. Advise the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions to limit their movements as much as possible. Advise them get out early in the morning for exercise and a swim. Limit gatherings. Get more manpower on the task force and pay regular visits to businesses to ensure that they are adhering to the guidelines.

    The Government’s failure to secure the borders have put us in this mess. All this our focus has been on people coming in legally when that is something we can control via quarantine and testing. That was never the issue! The issue was those coming in illegally which we knew was happening as we had three incidences or more since the pandemic. A matter of fact it has been happening since the beginning of time. Chickens come home to roost? What happened to all those customs guys who no longer need to work at the various seaports? They are getting paid so put them to work. Then you refuse help from the UK to secure the borders? Something does not add up.

    Now we paying for the Government’s blunder. Most of us have done all they told us but they blew it not us.

    Like 9
    Dislike 3
  17. Me says:

    So what about my insurance? Why can’t I pay my car insurance since it expired yesterday? I pray I drive safely and not hit anyone. Government should open insurance businesses, they are essential now with a storm coming.

  18. Helpless says:

    Go to the insurance company office and stick your cheque through the door or send it by mail

    Like 1
    Dislike 2
  19. @tongue fu says:

    You hit the nail on its head. Only common sense will prevail

    Like 1
    Dislike 1
  20. @ E. Leonard says:

    The government need to close the supermarket too because a lot of people going in there. Why only a few must live? If corona don’t kill hunger and stress will and so far corona is killing far less than hunger and stress. Anyone ever notice that we will never know how many people die with flu, dengue, Zika just to name a few because it wasn’t reported but because we are seeing every day report on corona we are thinking it’s more dangerous than other viruses and diseases. Life goes on and if they say taking the necessary precautions will stop the spread , why keeping people lockdown ? Just have people adhere to the necessary precautions. Lord have mercy the stress will kill faster.

    Like 1
    Dislike 4
  21. Law and order? says:

    It would appear to me that whenever the public makes sufficient noise about any part of the curfew order they don’t agree with, that cabinet folds and gives them what they want. I guess it can be seen as them “listening to the people”, but when a decision is reversed less than 3 days after the order, I have to wonder what the basis of these decisions are in the first place. What’s the game plan for real for real??

  22. Lili says:

    Please hon. Andrew the virus already here adults and children doesn’t make any sense on keeping people business closed who giving jobs for people to get feed and people who only depend on a salary only for God sake!!

    Like 2
    Dislike 1
  23. Anonymous says:

    I agreeeeeee lord speak with sense correct

  24. WHO says:

    The WHO is a corrupt puppet of the Chinese which is using the useless agency for deployment of propaganda and worse. The US has seen this and left the organization and has defunded it. Read all of the early WHO statements and those with regards to China. However, the Foy has decided to use WHO as the gold standard for every move made is because he is in bed with the Chinese and the Communists. He has decided the BVI is his kingdom and he is the D******r. How long will the people sit back and remain servants to this t****t. He is worse for the BVI then Covid. The people of the Territory are going to pay dearly over the next couple of years because of his actions.

  25. @S_girl says:

    Every business is essential to someone

    Like 2
    Dislike 2
  26. Scary now says:

    Mr Fahie , I beg you please lockdown the territory 3 weeks max , from the first instance the people of the territory should have been prepared for another instance and also hurricane season , they had the past two weeks to also stock up on enough food to last several weeks. People eat rice , bread and crackers and water and lemonade if you must but this island needs a complete lockdown. I will not risk my family’s health in the name of jobs and food . Surviving on what you have is better than losing your family . That is all !

    Like 3
    Dislike 6
  27. Dr Right says:

    Hydroxychloroquine works as a cure and prevention. It is cheap and readily available. It has been used for decades with occasional mild side effects. It has been on the UN’s list of approved essential medicines for decades.

    The WHO was bought-out a long time ago, don’t listen to their lies. The studies they backed that claimed to show that hydroxy is dangerous had to be retracted because the data was falsified.

    Listen to the doctors who are successfully using it to treat their covid-19 patients. Doctors are there to help people, Bill Gates is there to make enormous amounts of cash.

    Do the math.

    PS- lets stop spreading obviously falsified numbers relating to covid-19. All it does is frighten people into submission.

  28. Secret Bear says:

    @Scary now

    take your panic porn and GTFO. This virus has almost a 99.9 percent survival rate.

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