The Cou­va Point Lisas Cham­ber of Com­merce (CPCC) is call­ing on the Gov­ern­ment to re­open sport­ing ac­tiv­i­ties na­tion­wide, as part of the strat­e­gy to beat COVID-19.

It al­so is rec­om­mend­ing that sport­ing venues be made safe zones, with lim­it­ed ca­pac­i­ty for the ful­ly vac­ci­nat­ed, as well as strict ad­her­ence to all COVID-19 pro­to­cols at these sites.

“We be­lieve that the re­turn to sports for vac­ci­nat­ed per­sons on­ly will act as an en­cour­age­ment for those who are vac­cine hes­i­tant and that the said per­sons will go and get their jabs. Par­ents and sup­port­ers may fol­low suit as well,” the Cham­ber says in an of­fi­cial state­ment signed by its pres­i­dent, Mukesh Ram­s­ingh.

“Beach­es were al­lowed to be open and al­though it is for a lim­it­ed time in the day, it is vir­tu­al­ly im­pos­si­ble to know or con­trol who is vaxxed and who is not. Bars, restau­rants and cin­e­mas are places where pa­trons are to­geth­er for long pe­ri­ods in an en­closed area. Most sports are out­doors and so much eas­i­er to so­cial dis­tance,” the re­lease points out.

The CPCC is ar­gu­ing that en­sur­ing the pop­u­la­tion can ac­cess sport­ing fa­cil­i­ties and en­gage in sport­ing ac­tiv­i­ties should be part of the Gov­ern­ment’s strat­e­gy to over­come the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic.

“At this time, when the pop­u­la­tion is try­ing to stay healthy, ex­er­cise plays a vi­tal role in their lives and some peo­ple re­ly on sport­ing ac­tiv­i­ties for their car­dio work out,” the state­ment said.

The Cham­ber al­so is ar­gu­ing for the health of the sport­ing busi­ness sec­tor.

“From an eco­nom­ic point of view, sports equip­ment sales are al­most nil for the last eigh­teen months lead­ing to loss on in­come which in turn have caused sports shops to cut staff,” the CPCC says. 

It notes: “With the re­cent ris­ing cost of food, cost of trans­porta­tion and the over­all cost of liv­ing go­ing up con­stant­ly, per­sons de­pend on the lo­cal and re­gion­al sports for an ex­tra in­come and in some cas­es, it is their full-time job i.e. for play­ers, man­agers, coach­es and grounds keep­ers.”

The Cham­ber main­tains that the coun­try “must learn to adapt and live with the virus”, stress­ing that it sup­ports Gov­ern­ment’s call for cit­i­zens to be vac­ci­nat­ed, and get their boost­er shots.

“The CPCC con­tin­ues to sup­port the call along­side the Gov­ern­ment for cit­i­zens to get vac­ci­nat­ed and al­so boost­ed, as it is our first line of de­fence against the virus. We must take the re­al­i­ty that the virus is not go­ing away any time soon in­to con­sid­er­a­tion and the dream of ze­ro COVID in any coun­try is not pos­si­ble cur­rent­ly,” the busi­ness lob­by ob­served.

“Per­sons must take a per­son­al re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to take care of them­selves and their fam­i­ly,” it added.