New COVID-19 measures could be gazetted today – Anthony

The Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony is optimistic that the new COVID-19 emergency health measures for November could be published in the Official Gazette by today.

Dr Anthony expressed this hope on Wednesday where he disclosed that the new measures would be quite similar to those in place which are set to expire tomorrow. He noted that a few adjustments would be made.

“The measures would pretty much be similar to what we have now, there would be a few adjustments that we are making,” the health minister said.

In relation to the possible changes, Dr Anthony said that a number of stakeholders in the various sectors have met with the National COVID-19 Task Force (NCTF) during the month and were able to bring the task force’s attention to measures that they wished to have adjusted.

Accordingly, some assessments have been done and possible changes would be made based on the outcome of those assessments. “So the grouping that deals with the guidelines have met, they had their preliminary meeting and we are working now to finalise those guidelines,” Dr. Anthony said.

He added that they are hoping to have that done soon so that the measures could be published in the Official Gazette by today. “So we are hoping that by Friday that job will be completed and we will be able to gazette new guidelines by Friday to come into effect on Sunday.”

During the last update of the COVID-19 emergency measures, the curfew commenced at 9pm instead of 4pm and non-essential services were allowed to operate from 4am to 8pm under the measures which are expected to expire on Saturday. Under these measures the wearing of masks in public, was made mandatory for persons over the age of eight.

The reopening of the two international airports on October 12 and the resumption of flights have been seen as major developments which could also pose a challenge to the health sector.