Today’s start of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season coincides with the third phase of St. Maarten’s post-COVID-19 lockdown reopening plan. The latter in fact already began Saturday, two days earlier than had originally been stated, leading to some confusion over what was allowed during the weekend.
A ministerial decree that also permits businesses to operate on Sundays and limits the curfew to between 11:00pm and 5:00am was published only late Friday and the official announcement did not come until Saturday, so not everyone had been aware that, for example, restaurants could receive patrons again. Despite this apparent information glitch, the changes made along with the deactivation of the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) confirm that the worst of the local health risk is seemingly over.
That is certainly not the case for the related severe socioeconomic consequences facing the country though, and quickly getting the private sector on track obviously plays an extremely important role in mitigating these. Mind you, the dominant hospitality industry cannot significantly be restored before leisure travel to the destination is possible, which hopefully will not take too long.
In the meantime, payroll support for companies to prevent widespread closures and mass layoffs remains key to keeping the tourism economy afloat. That is partly why the labour unions accepting government’s vacation allowance cut to meet Dutch conditions for further liquidity loans from the Netherlands (see Saturday paper) was highly necessary.
While the destination attempts to recover from this unprecedented crisis barely 2½ years since the devastating passage of Hurricane Irma, it faces the annual threat of tropical systems. One can merely hope for being spared any major storm this year or at least until the island is a bit more back on its feet.
But relevant preparations for the worst still need to be made, including a general clean-up in the districts scheduled for completion by July/August as reported on in today’s edition. Getting ready is now to be accomplished with even fewer available financial means than usual in the “new normal.”
And let’s face it, things will not be the same as they were for quite some time or perhaps ever. This is a “having less” reality that practically the whole population must learn to live with.
