NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance K Peter Turnquest yesterday warned that this nation will have to fight the COVID-19 pandemic for a long time if Bahamians choose to be “undisciplined” and “rebellious”.
Turnquest told Eyewitness News that the Minnis administration is preparing a plan to reopen the economy.
He urged Bahamians to work together to fight the pandemic, added “what we can control is our own actions”.
“We have little control over the number of cases being reported everyday,” he said.
“What we can control is our own actions and how control over is our own initial actions. This administration will always take the side of caution to ensure that we don’t ensure we do not reach the level where we test the healthcare system’s capacity as that spells a different kind of disaster for the country. The circumstances as they develop determine the response the administration prescribes to deal with it.”
Turnquest said: “What we are working on simultaneously is a reopening plan taking advantage of the lessons learned during the first opening and lessons learned from around the world to try and mitigate as best we can what we see and what we perceive the risks will be.”
“This isn’t just about the government and the healthcare system or businesses, everyone it’s about everyone of us helping to curb the spread of this virus so that we can open this economy up, have a relatively buoyant domestic economy and a slow tourism reopening that will start to float all boats.”
He said: “It depends on us. If we choose to be undisciplined, take the route of political mischief and rebellion we will have to fight this for a long time because no one can control it. It takes all of us.”
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