It appears there is no escaping the worldwide effect of the current coronavirus. Apart from the obvious medical crisis its socioeconomic impact is starting to take on huge proportions.
Major product supply lines are interrupted due to the shutdown of factories in manufacturing giant China. Governments in affected countries or areas have closed schools and other public facilities, as well as limited or prohibited large gatherings, while international financial markets took a nosedive.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) raised the global risk warning to its maximum “very high” level. Although it is not using the dreaded term “pandemic”, some experts claim that stage has been all but reached.
With 83,000 infections in 56 nations including some in the region, and more than 2,800 fatalities, the threat is real. Moreover, markets from which the island gets many flights and guests such as the United States (US), Canada, France and the Netherlands have all reported cases.
Up to now much of the attention locally has been on accepting cruise ships refused by other destinations due to fear of the potentially deadly virus. But on Friday a French couple suspected of having contracted it was stopped at Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIA) when coming from St. Barths and flying on to Paris, while authorities were still considering whether to allow passengers of a cruise ship shunned by the Dominican Republic for the same reason to disembark here and be flown out via the Dutch side (see related stories).
Experience has shown that not only hurricanes can deal devastating blows to the island’s tourism economy. Many will no doubt remember travel coming almost to a complete halt following the 9-11 terrorist attacks against the US.
Hopefully that won’t happen again because precautionary measures both here and abroad prevent a further explosive spread of the highly contagious disease. For example, China reported 329 infections in the preceding 24 hours, the lowest it’s been this entire month.
Nevertheless, indications are that an end to this crisis is nowhere in sight and St. Maarten/St. Martin will need to brace for possible tough times ahead as a result.
