CHESTER SAM­BRA­NO

The Bar­keep­ers and Op­er­a­tors As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go (BOATT) says the cur­rent re­stric­tions on recre­ation­al fa­cil­i­ties do not make sense.

As part of the on­go­ing pub­lic health reg­u­la­tions beach­es, casi­nos, cin­e­mas, church­es and gyms are among the list of places that are not al­lowed to be open. In the case of bars, they can open but on­ly for take­away ser­vices.

How­ev­er, speak­ing on CNC3's the Morn­ing Brew to­day, BOATT in­ter­im pres­i­dent Teron Mo­han said bars, in par­tic­u­lar, can be out­fit­ted in such a way that so­cial dis­tanc­ing can be main­tained and the busi­ness can be al­lowed to op­er­ate.

"As far as putting on so many re­stric­tions it re­al­ly doesn't make sense at all. So, I don't be­lieve that the bars or the beach­es or any of the oth­er ter­ri­to­ries re­al­ly need to be so harsh­ly re­strict­ed as they present­ly are."

Mo­han said the fo­cus should be more on en­force­ment of the reg­u­la­tions by rel­e­vant agen­cies.

"Our pub­lic of­fi­cials, our pub­lic ser­vants are more than ca­pa­ble of be­ing able to mon­i­tor the sit­u­a­tion."

He main­tained that, based on their in­ves­ti­ga­tions, bars are not to blame for the sec­ond wave which the coun­try is now ex­pe­ri­enc­ing.