Gov­ern­ment has now al­lo­cat­ed $30 mil­lion to bail out restau­rant and bar em­ploy­ees and peo­ple who are self-em­ployed.

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley an­nounced on Sat­ur­day that the Gov­ern­ment has al­lo­cat­ed an ad­di­tion­al $10 mil­lion for em­ploy­ees of bars and restau­rants who have "lost their jobs and suf­fered a re­duc­tion in in­come.” He said $20 mil­lion has al­so been al­lo­cat­ed for peo­ple who are "self-em­ployed and are now un­able to make ends meet.”

Row­ley was speak­ing at the COVID-19 press con­fer­ence held at the Di­vi­sion of Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment, En­ter­prise De­vel­op­ment and Labour con­fer­ence room at Glen Road, Scar­bor­ough.

He said while peo­ple were ex­pect­ing that the Gov­ern­ment would re­move the re­stric­tion on the in-house con­sump­tion of al­co­hol at bars and restau­rants, a de­ci­sion was tak­en to main­tain the mea­sure be­cause "bars are in the busi­ness of en­cour­ag­ing con­gre­ga­tion and con­gre­ga­tion is the dan­ger."

The Prime Min­is­ter said that the Gov­ern­ment al­so un­der­stands the po­si­tion that those af­fect­ed now face.

"We are re­strict­ing them to pro­tect all of us, so we need to share the bur­den with them. There­fore, I have asked the Min­is­ter of Fi­nance to find an ad­di­tion­al $10 mil­lion to specif­i­cal­ly deal with em­ploy­ees of restau­rants and bars."

Bar and restau­rant own­ers who would have lost or are los­ing their busi­ness­es were en­cour­aged to avail them­selves of the fi­nances pre­vi­ous­ly al­lo­cat­ed for "small busi­ness sup­port." Dr Row­ley, how­ev­er, as­sured that the Gov­ern­ment would treat bars and restau­rants with some el­e­ment of ur­gency.

The Prime Min­is­ter added that the Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices will al­so pro­vide as­sis­tance for cit­i­zens who are "suf­fer­ing ad­di­tion­al hard­ship."

Ac­cord­ing to the Prime Min­is­ter, the $20 mil­lion will be avail­able for dis­burse­ment among peo­ple who were mak­ing a liv­ing through av­enues which no longer ex­ists. He re­ferred to ven­dors at sport­ing events and sim­i­lar small busi­ness own­ers through­out the coun­try.

"There were cit­i­zens mak­ing it on their own, mak­ing that way liv­ing on the mar­gin and that mar­gin has re­ced­ed from them and they are on the brink of des­ti­tu­tion."

He said each case will have to be ver­i­fied but the Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices will be "rel­a­tive­ly gen­er­ous be­tween now and Jan­u­ary," es­pe­cial­ly where chil­dren are in­volved. The Prime Min­is­ter al­so pub­licly ap­pealed to pub­lic ser­vants to "be em­pa­thet­ic" when peo­ple come to the var­i­ous pub­lic of­fices seek­ing to ap­ply for the funds.

Mean­while, casi­nos will now join cin­e­mas by al­low­ing the con­sump­tion of food in-house.

An­nounce­ments:

*No Christ­mas par­ties at gov­ern­ment of­fices, state cor­po­ra­tions

*Pri­vate sec­tor, fam­i­lies asked to do same

*$10 mil­lion to as­sist those af­fect­ed by bar re­stric­tions

*$20 mil­lion to as­sist af­fect­ed self-em­ployed

*Food ser­vices to re­sume in casi­nos

*Bars and restau­rants will con­tin­ue to have take­away ser­vices on­ly.

*Hunt­ing to re­sume

*T&T’s bor­ders re­main closed, but ex­emp­tions con­tin­ue to be grant­ed for na­tion­als choos­ing to re­turn home as well as for those who wish to leave.