PHILIPSBURG:--- Minister of Public Health and Labor Omar Ottley issued a call to all residents on St. Maarten on Wednesday to act responsibly with the increased spread of the COVID-19. The Minister said that while the number of active cases has increased drastically these past few days, he is sure the number is much higher but has not been recorded.
Ottley said that there are persons with flu-like symptoms that did their own self-testing and received a positive result have been mingling with others and even going to work and are spreading the virus much more. “These are the same persons that are spreading the virus are blaming him and CPS while they are blatantly spreading the virus. This is not acceptable.”
The Minister also responsible for labor affairs said that a decision was taken to scale back business hours to 1 am. This decision he said was taken based on the number of persons that are hospitalized.
The Minister of Health said many persons are calling on the Government to shut down while St. Maarten will not be getting any more liquidity support from the Netherlands for the first quarter of 2022.
Ottley explained that there will be no more SSRP or food voucher program for now and it is important to keep the economy alive so that people can survive the pandemic.
The Minister made clear that he is certain everyone on St. Maarten knows exactly what they have to do in order to stop the spread of the coronavirus. “It's been over two years since the world is dealing with the pandemic and it takes everyone to cooperate and stop the spread.”
