Harbour View:--- On March 26, 2020, His Excellency the Governor of Sint Maarten, drs. E.B. Holiday received the updated final report from formateur S. Jacobs.

The formateur has accepted the commission to form a new government that has the support of a broad majority in Parliament comprised of the NA-fraction and the UP-fraction. The new government consists of Ministers who are committed to the promotion of the wellbeing of Sint Maarten, who will amongst others give priority to concluding the legislation regarding the combating of money laundering and financing of terrorism, including the penal procedure code, the development of initiatives aimed at the sustainable social-economic recovery of Sint Maarten including the execution of the agreements made with The Netherlands and the World Bank, realizing sustainable government finances, including the completion of the 2020 budget, the safety and security of Sint Maarten by investing in the strengthening of the law and order services, the improvement of our environment with an emphasis on realizing sustainable waste management solutions, and the amending of the electoral laws. Considering the current situation, the new government will give priority to addressing the COVID-19 crisis.

Candidates for the various portfolios have been vetted based on the pertinent regulations regulating the pre-screening of candidates before nomination (National Decree Appointment procedure candidate Ministers and candidate Minister Plenipotentiary, May 22, 2013, No. LB-13/0442). The formateur has nominated the following persons for appointment:

• Silveria Jacobs, Prime Minister and Minister of General Affairs;
• Anna Richardson, Minister of Justice;
• Ardwell Irion, Minister of Finance;
• Rodolphe Samuel, Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sports;
• Egbert Doran, Minister of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment, and Infrastructure;
• Ludmila de Weever, Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport, and Telecommunication;
• Richard Panneflek, Minister of Public Health, Social Development and Labour; and
• Rene Violenus, Minister Plenipotentiary.

The Governor has scheduled the appointment and swearing in of the Ministers on Saturday, March 28, 11.00 hours, at the Governor’s Office. As a result of the current restrictions due to the COVID-19 developments no guests will be permitted.

~ Lots of Red tape to fly out COVID-19 patients. ~

MARIGOT: --- The American patient that was flown out to Miami on Thursday evening was not vacationing on St. Martin/ St. Maarten as reported by American media.
SMN News understands that the patient and his family and friends were on a yacht outside of St. Martin where he fell ill. According to well-placed sources, the patient was taken to the Louis Constant Fleming Hospital about three days ago where he was admitted and placed on a ventilator.
SMN News understands that the patient received proper medical care while being hospitalized on St. Martin and while the American media reported that the island does not have the appropriate medical infrastructure to handle the risks associated with COVID-19, the same can be said about hospitals in the USA where medical staff does not even have the proper Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for the COVID-19 prevention.
SMN News further understands that the wife of the patient was also tested on the French side when the results of the 62-year-old man came back positive for the COVID-19 and the woman was also tested positive and was housed at a hotel on the French side of the island. 

According to information provided to SMN News, the patient and his family were on their personal yacht when he fell ill and was brought to LCF on Sunday. The source said that the patient wife is a medical doctor and when her husband complications were becoming severe LCF medical team made all efforts to send the patient to Guadeloupe for further medical treatment but his wife refused that option and said she would make contact with her medical insurance who made the necessary arrangements for him to be evacuated to the USA.

RED TAPE
SMN News also understands that the medics on the private jet arrived as of 10 am on Thursday but French authorities had to cross lots of ‘red tape” before the patient was able to leave the island. The source said that Dutch Authorities in the Ministry of VSA made it almost impossible for the patient to cross the border and that the Prime Minister of St. Maarten and the Netherlands had to be contacted before the patient could finally leave shortly after 5 pm. “We were told by the Ministry of VSA said that COVID-19 patients cannot cross the border even if they were leaving for medical purposes on a private medivac jet.”
The source further explained that 15 days ago French authorities had to go through the same amount of “red tape” to fly out their first patient to Guadeloupe and while patients are now being flown out through L’ Esperance the one on Thursday had to go through the Dutch side because the medivac jet chose to land on the Dutch side.

PHILIPSBURG:--- Plenary Public meeting to be held today Friday, March 27, 2020 at 14:00 hrs with agenda point:
3. Ontwerp van Landsverordening houdende vaststelling van een nieuw Wetboek van Strafvordering (Wetboek van Strafvordering) (IS/1189/2018-2019 d.d. 19 juni 2019) (Zittingsjaar 2018-2019-129)
(National ordinance establishing a new Code of Criminal Procedure (Code of Criminal Procedure) (Parliamentary Year 2018-2019-129))
Has been postponed until further notice.

PHILIPSBURG:--- In order to assess the economic damage for country St Maarten in the wake of the COVID 19 pandemic, the Sint Maarten Hospitality and Trade Association (SHTA) over the past 24 hours launched a business survey.

The assessment is meant to make as accurate as possible an estimate of economic damage done by the pandemic. Contributions are welcomed from both member and non-member companies, as the association sees any contribution as help to our collective economic wellbeing and national interest. In conjunction with the other business associations, the SHTA has directly started working on assessing what the economic fallout could be over both a 3 and 6-month timeframe. It welcomes additional associations like those of tour and taxi operators, (para)medical associations and others to join and fill out this inquiry.

The survey (website address: shta.com/survey-covid19) is accessible for any business that has not yet contributed to the research. Submissions are anonymous and will be only used in amalgamated settings per (broad) sector.

Together, SHTA and its fellow associations represent 70% of the employed in the private sector. The associations stress the more accurate the analysis will be, the better the country will be able to prepare befitting solutions.

The SHTA and its partner associations call on members and non-members to share the link with all their business contacts. The research will be updated daily, and results will be shared by the shta.com/survey-covid19 web page as well as Facebook https://www.facebook.com/262644475130/posts/10163825683675131/?d=n.