For the third consecutive day St. Maarten’s number of active COVID-19 cases went down, an obviously promising development. They dropped from 267 to 259 on Monday, to 222 on Tuesday and to 174 on Wednesday. There were still respectively three, six and 13 new cases, offset by 21, 41 and 61 recoveries.
One needs to be careful in drawing conclusions, because recently there had been a decline over two days, followed by more increases. If the current trend holds, however, it might spell the start of beating this second wave.
And that could mean a further resumption of business activities, after restaurants were already allowed to close at midnight instead of 10:00pm. From September 15 other evening entertainment establishments may then again be able to operate and the border will hopefully reopen.
The latter can only be achieved if everybody continues taking the necessary safety measures to protect themselves and others. What can happen when this does not take place is the current outbreak and one would like to assume people have learned that lesson by now.
The island cannot afford any more escalation when its tourism economy is already in such a deep crisis, and the sooner the dominant hospitality industry is restored at least somewhat, the better. Social and other assistance from mainly the Netherlands and France is welcome, but people need to get on with their lives.
