Prime Minister Andrew Holness was swear in as the prime minister of Jamaica for the third time today. His party won the national election by a land slide victory on the third of September. The victory saw the lowest turn out, 37% in a general election in our history. 48.37 % voted in our last election which was in 2016. Although there were a very low turn out the victory was right across the Island. Did COVID19 play a roll in the low turn out in light of the fact that the numbers were going up before the calling of the elections.
In the early stage of the COVID19 PANDEMIC we were a model. We even ranked in the top 10 up to last month. We open up to tourism and returning Jamaicans from allover the World in June. Since that we have seen a stead rise in our numbers both interms of deaths and positive cases. We have fallen out recently both as it relates to the number of deaths and cases. To stem the rapid increase in our numbers the prime minister announce new restrictions. Details are in this link of a vertual press conference held by the prime minister, https://bit.ly/2wemqUQ .The prime minister consistently asked Jamaican to exercise personal responsibility. The minister of health said we could see as much as 1,5m Jamaicans getting the virus. This he said is base on a model done by PAHO/WHO, Paho is Pan American Health Organization.
BUSINESSES PROSPECT AND EXPECTATIONS
The big hotels include the Negril Chamber of Commerce are making there voice heard on the matter of lock down to slow the virus spread. These leaders are in the media telling the prime minister not to lock down the country. Other sectors are adding there voice to the no lock down too. So far the prime minister said lock down will hurt the economy. He also said the government will review the protocol in two weeks time. There will be no lock down at this time he said but will not rule it out if needs be..
For me it is going be very tough keeping my business open. I need entertainment to come back and need the small and micro sector to come back for me to start having any prospect of pick up in my business. Because I feed off these businesses especially when there are little or no tourist around. Before the election the government had said state of emergencies would be lifted. Encourage by that I started to pruce up my place.
I decided to start working on making MiYard a brand that can offer much more than we now offer. The picture above was my first move. Then the restaurant .
I started doing live broadcast every Sunday https://www.facebook.com/miyardnegril/videos/231826258270281/ My plan is to brand all the pages of my fb then redo my website. The business which was closed was now reopen. Curfew hours were 11pm closing time. The business started to pick up. Election campaign started and COVID19 started to rise. The government got scared and instead of removing the curfew they let it remained. Primarily because people were gathering in large numbers and generally not following the protocols. .
Election is over and the government recently announce new curfew hours. The light I had felt and seen have now disappear. Am now seen clouds everywhere. Closing time is now 8pm and reduction in the numbers that are allow to gather. I am going to continue branding strengthen by this Buju song