BUSINESS chambers are calling on Government to include more measures in its policy planning to reduce the Covid-19 spread in the country at least for the next two weeks.
And again the offer was made to have vaccines privately imported.
In a joint statement issued on Wednesday, the American Chamber of Commerce of Trinidad and Tobago (AMCHAM T&T), Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Commerce, the Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturing Association (TTMA) and other business organisations, pledged support to aid in curbing the spread of the coronavirus.
Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley hosted a meeting with representatives on Wednesday to discuss collaborating with the Government to restart the economy responsibly and to have businesses operational.
The groups stated, “We recognise the Government cannot do this alone, we want to ensure that the private sector does all that is required to support the Government and the people of Trinidad and Tobago.”
While understanding of the economic and health situation, businesses continue to be under tremendous strain after months of limited, and in many cases, no sales.
“The Government should consider introducing additional measures to reduce the movement and interaction of citizens in the public domain over the next two weeks.
“We are all in this together and that some intense pain now may reduce longer term suffering. More importantly, it may save lives,” the organisations stated.
The business chambers and TTMA also recommended that Government develop and make public, a “scale-up/scale-down” approach to restrictions based on pre-defined metrics to determine a link between movement and increased cases. Businesses can be classed along a scale of low to high risk with appropriate protocols developed for each group.
Once the Covid-19 spread is managed, the business chambers suggest that there should be a further relaxation of restrictions allowing all manufacturers with export orders be given permission to engage.
Additionally, they recommend that there should be a phased reopening of businesses that have pivoted their operations to support various forms of digital commerce, contactless customer engagement and direct fulfilment.
And the only way to effectively reduce the threats of the virus, a minimum of one million people must be vaccinated in Trinidad and Tobago, they stated.
With reference to the vaccines the chambers said policies must be created to ensure that this was possible. They also suggested allowing vaccinated nationals to travel into and out of Trinidad and Tobago.
The association stated, “If people leave T&T and get fully vaccinated and wait an appropriate period for immunity to be build they should be allowed back in, travel restrictions, including quarantine should be loosened. Such people should not necessarily have the financial burden of hotel quarantine or burden the state quarantine facilities.”
