Holness should require all sectors of society to align with COVID-19 guidelines

Dear Editor,

The Government has done a commendable job in educating the public about COVID-19 and establishing emergency guidelines. However, the prime minister needs to go further and require alignment with the emergency guidelines in all sectors of the society.

Here are a few examples of the lack of alignment:

The banks are merrily ‘dormanting’ accounts and requiring the account holders to go into the branches to reactivate them. Why have they not suspended the dormancy process in keeping with the COVID-19 guidelines which require people to stay home, except for essential activities?

Another example: Post offices are requiring sick, old people, way up in their 80s and 90s, to turn up in person to collect pensions, instead of allowing relatives with proper identification and authorisation to collect it for them. This is despite the fact that senior citizens, especially the sick ones, are ordered by the Government to remain at home.

Yet another example relates to landlords and tenants. Landlords are giving tenants notices to quit and evicting them in the middle of the pandemic. A check with the Rent Assessment Board revealed that there are no special policies to prevent such outrageous, inhumane actions during the pandemic. Governments in other countries have issued guidelines to stay the hand of landlords from throwing out tenants who experience hardship because of COVID19. Some have also passed laws to prevent landlords from evicting senior citizens and from doing things that would put them at risk given their level of vulnerability.

Prime Minister Holness needs to take action immediately to address the gaps in alignment if the emergency guidelines are not to be regarded as just a public relations poppy show. R Johnson bobbyjohnson6@gmail.com