Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley has giv­en per­mis­sion for the re­sump­tion of al­most all eco­nom­ic ac­tiv­i­ty one week ahead of the third phase of re­open­ing.

Sched­uled to take ef­fect on June 7, phase three will now kick in on June 1.

The move fol­lows the same pat­tern when Row­ley an­nounced the re­sump­tion of phase two four days ear­li­er than pre­vi­ous­ly sched­uled.

In ad­di­tion to all pub­lic ser­vants re­turn­ing to work from Mon­day, the re­tail sec­tor as well as lot­tery agents, book­stores, pro­fes­sion­al ser­vices, den­tists, op­ti­cians and ther­a­pists will al­so re­sume busi­ness op­er­a­tions.

How­ev­er, the own­ers of these es­tab­lish­ments will have to close their doors at 6 pm and en­sure that cus­tomers do not con­gre­gate, prac­tice so­cial dis­tanc­ing and wear their masks.

Out­lin­ing the mea­sures dur­ing a press con­fer­ence at Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre, St Ann's, on Sat­ur­day, Row­ley said he had in­di­cat­ed that phase three would have start­ed from June 5 to 19, but a de­ci­sion was made to move it for­ward to June 1.

"So it would mean that those who were deemed non-es­sen­tial would now be re­quired to come to work. But they would do so in a sys­tem where all the man­agers of the pub­lic ser­vice would be re­quired out to work."

Pub­lic ser­vants, he said, will pick up du­ty on a ro­ta­tion­al ba­sis un­til fur­ther no­tice. Row­ley said they will en­cour­age the use of vir­tu­al meet­ings at the man­age­ment lev­el, while work­ers are al­lowed flex­itime

"If there are per­sons who have is­sues with child care arrange­ments and so on and they of­fer to do vir­tu­al work, we would en­cour­age the pub­lic ser­vice to do that." Peo­ple as­signed to work on ro­ta­tion would have to make their own child care arrange­ments. Bring­ing chil­dren in­to work­places, Row­ley said, would not be en­cour­aged. "We don't want ex­po­sure. So it re­quires co­op­er­a­tion be­tween man­age­ment and the staff to get most of this done."

The PM said they will open "all re­tail es­tab­lish­ments" which he de­scribed as a ma­jor sec­tor, as well as malls, book­shops, den­tal ser­vices, and oc­cu­pa­tion­al health ther­a­py and pro­fes­sion­al ser­vices such as en­gi­neers and ar­chi­tects will al­so be al­lowed to op­er­ate.

Peo­ple will not be able to dine in food courts at malls.

"I hope I am mak­ing that clear. Busi­ness in the malls is nor­mal shop­ping."

He said all Na­tion­al Lot­ter­ies Con­trol Board lot­tery agents will be au­tho­rised to op­er­ate.

As for the open­ing of rac­ing pools and tracks, Row­ley said "I don't see that we have cleared horse rac­ing to­day. We have not giv­en clear­ance for horse rac­ing to com­mence." By June 15, these busi­ness­es should be in a po­si­tion to op­er­ate.

As for maxi-taxi op­er­a­tors and hired taxis, the PM said they would have to con­tin­ue op­er­at­ing at 50 per cent ca­pac­i­ty.

With re­spect to the ho­tels, he said, "where ho­tels are able to of­fer out­door din­ing on-premis­es to res­i­dents that will be per­mit­ted."

The PM said phase four, which was sched­uled to open on June 20, will now move up to June 8.

"That means the full pub­lic ser­vice should be out and op­er­at­ing and would con­tin­ue so to do on a ro­ta­tion­al ba­sis. It means that your hair­dressers, bar­bers and spas will be open to you on the 8th. So one more week."

Maids, house­keep­ers, gar­den­ers and do­mes­tic work­ers will al­so re­sume work on June 8.

Row­ley said he has asked Chief Med­ical Of­fi­cer Dr Roshan Paras­ram to reach out to op­er­a­tors of casi­nos and cin­e­mas to sub­mit a pro­pos­al on "work­place safe­ty" so their work­ers–many of whom are women–can re­turn to work.

"And bars as well to be able in the next cy­cle that we would con­sid­er the re­open­ing of these es­tab­lish­ments. We want to bring them back in op­er­a­tions but we want to have some idea as to what pro­to­cols would be in place, so come next week, we would do that."

Hav­ing re­ceived com­plaints that peo­ple are be­ing "dis­con­nect­ed from God," Row­ley said our church­es need to be opened. He said while wor­ship­ping God is good, gath­er­ing was a mat­ter of con­cern.

"So we have to wait for a lit­tle longer...maybe one more cy­cle."

Phase five, which was sched­uled to come in­to ef­fect on Ju­ly 5 Row­ley said, will now be brought up to June 22. "So that is two weeks ear­li­er. And, of course, if the record re­mains as clean as it is, the week be­fore that, we might even come for­ward a lit­tle ear­li­er."

He said by the third week in June, we should be back to "loud prais­es" in our cathe­drals.

"Again, all of this is pred­i­cat­ed on the as­sump­tion that our num­bers re­main good. We trust in this pe­ri­od we are open­ing up the doors wider and wider....that we are not sub­ject to that in­fec­tion lev­el which is called a spike."

By June 21, Row­ley said, they are look­ing to open beach­es, rivers and sport­ing ac­tiv­i­ties.

BACK TO BUSI­NESS

Phase Three re­open­ing takes ef­fect on June 1

-Pol­i­cy of "No masks no ser­vice" holds

-All sec­tors of the Pub­lic Ser­vice–man­agers and su­per­vi­sors re­quired to re­port for work

-Sub­or­di­nates will be re­quired to work on ro­ta­tion–mean­ing, some Mon­day, Wednes­day, Fri­day, while oth­ers work Tues­day and Thurs­day

-Man­age­ment to use vir­tu­al meth­ods to host meet­ings

-Peo­ple with child-care needs can work vir­tu­al­ly

-Flex­itime can be utilised to min­imise the num­ber of peo­ple in the of­fice and on the roads

-All re­tail es­tab­lish­ments to re­open. This is a ma­jor sec­tor-small trade, small busi­ness­es

-Re­stric­tions on den­tal care, phys­i­cal ther­a­py in pools and oc­cu­pa­tion­al health and ther­a­py lift­ed

-Pro­fes­sion­al ser­vices such as en­gi­neers, ar­chi­tects, sur­vey­ors

-All NL­CB out­lets to re­open

-All malls

-No dine-in at mall food courts

-CAL to in­crease ser­vices to To­ba­go

-Seabridge ser­vices will al­so be ramped up

-Book­shops to re­open

-De­spite the in­crease in the num­ber of peo­ple back out to work from Mon­day, maxi-taxis and taxis will con­tin­ue to op­er­ate at 50 per cent ca­pac­i­ty.

-Ho­tels can re­sume out­door din­ing–no in­door din­ing al­lowed

Phase Four re­open­ing June 8

-Bar­bers

-Hair­dressers

-Spas

-Do­mes­tic work­ers

*No de­ci­sion yet on casi­nos, bars and cin­e­mas

Gov­ern­ment may con­sid­er re­open­ing these es­tab­lish­ments in the next cy­cle lat­er in June.

*Places of wor­ships may open in the next cy­cle.