Why are restau­rants be­ing tar­get­ed?

And where is the en­force­ment of COVID-19 pro­to­cols?

Those were the main ques­tions com­ing from sev­er­al busi­ness cham­bers in the wake of the an­nounce­ment of new re­stric­tions.

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley yes­ter­day an­nounced that, among oth­er mea­sures, restau­rants closed at mid­night last night and would have to re­main shut­tered un­til May 23.

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce in a state­ment yes­ter­day af­ter Dr Row­ley’s an­nounce­ment said it be­lieves that the ma­jor­i­ty of ex­ist­ing mea­sures were al­ready in place to lim­it the spread of COVID-19.

“What is need­ed is ro­bust en­force­ment of the cur­rent mea­sures,” the Cham­ber said.

The Cham­ber said that many pri­vate sec­tor or­ga­ni­za­tions have im­ple­ment­ed the re­quired safe­ty mea­sures to keep their staff and cus­tomers safe.

The Cham­ber al­so ques­tioned the need to shut down restau­rants com­plete­ly.

“We would like the gov­ern­ment to re­con­sid­er the po­si­tion on food and bev­er­age take­away and de­liv­ery ser­vices,” the cham­ber asked.

“The ad­di­tion­al re­stric­tions will hurt the com­pli­ant busi­ness­es while lack of en­force­ment with the non-com­pli­ant busi­ness­es and in­di­vid­u­als con­tin­ue to put our cit­i­zens at risk,” it said.

“While we un­der­stand the ne­ces­si­ty for stricter en­force­ment on pri­vate group gath­er­ings, we are very con­cerned about the ex­tent to which such pro­to­cols may be im­ple­ment­ed as it may en­croach on the pri­va­cy and con­sti­tu­tion­al rights of cit­i­zens,” it said.

It al­so called on the Gov­ern­ment to de­fer tax­es and VAT pay­ments or ex­pe­dite re­funds to as­sist busi­ness­es with their ex­pens­es dur­ing these re­stric­tions.

The Cham­ber al­so called for stricter con­trols of the “porous bor­ders which ap­pear to be con­tribut­ing to the in­crease in cas­es”.

Pres­i­dent of the Changua­nas Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce Richie Sookhai yes­ter­day al­so ques­tioned why there was no con­sul­ta­tion with the pri­vate sec­tor be­fore these de­ci­sions that af­fect­ed them were tak­en.

“While we un­der­stand the nec­es­sary mea­sures that the State must take in terms of en­forc­ing fur­ther lock­downs, we do be­lieve some of the mea­sures tak­en against restau­rants are a bit strin­gent and could be re-ex­am­ined,” he said.

Sookhai said that restau­rants were op­er­at­ing un­der the so­cial dis­tanc­ing reg­u­la­tions and were “al­ready strug­gling” on­ly now to face com­plete clo­sure.

“While we un­der­stand the need to re­duce con­gre­ga­tions, the kitchens can re­main open for curb­side or take­away,” he said.

Sookhai al­so ques­tioned why a cur­few sys­tem was not be­ing con­sid­ered for restau­rants in­stead.

“There are a lot of restau­rants that have pur­chased pro­duce for the week­end, for the week. What is go­ing to hap­pen now?” Sookhai asked.

Head of the Down­town Own­ers and Mer­chants As­so­ci­a­tion (DO­MA) Gre­go­ry Aboud had sim­i­lar sen­ti­ments. He called for more clar­i­ty with re­gards to the sci­ence be­hind the de­ci­sion to close some busi­ness­es while oth­ers are al­lowed to re­main open.

He said that there was go­ing to be a “dis­rup­tive ef­fect” on peo­ple’s liveli­hoods.

“There are those in so­ci­ety that are equal­ly vul­ner­a­ble to the dra­mat­ic down­turn in in­come that is be­ing caused by the re­stric­tions,” he said.

“It is wor­ri­some,”’ he said.

Aboud said that he re­ceived “many calls” from peo­ple look­ing for clar­i­ty from the Gov­ern­ment and the Min­istry.

“About the sci­en­tif­ic rea­sons that ex­plain why cer­tain busi­ness­es are closed and some al­lowed to re­main open. If we can un­der­stand it would prob­a­bly as­sist in the ac­cep­tance of these new re­stric­tive mea­sures,” he said.

“There is a bit of con­fu­sion and lack of un­der­stand­ing re­gard­ing the choic­es be­ing made and how those choic­es are made,” he said.

“Why be­ing in a restau­rant or a bar pos­es such grave dan­ger as op­posed to oth­er ac­tiv­i­ties which are be­ing al­lowed to con­tin­ue,” he asked

Mean­while, Jai Lelad­hars­ingh, head of the Con­fed­er­a­tion of Re­gion­al Busi­ness Cham­bers said that the new lock­down will be “detri­men­tal to busi­ness­es”.

He too said that it was the unchecked move­ment of mi­grants through the porous bor­ders that was adding to the ris­ing COVID-19 num­bers.