News 784: Sunday’s will be a rest day in Barbados as the country gears up for a phased reopening from Monday, March 1st 2021.
In an address to the nation last Thursday night, Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley said the gradual reopening was the method Government had been advised to take.
The Prime Minister stated that supermarkets will open from Monday to Saturday, but there will be no commercial activity on Sundays in those establishments, hardware stores or any other store for the time being.
Gas stations, she added, will open on Sundays, but not their minimarts.
She said that in addition to the existing 6:00 to 9:00 a.m. access to beaches and parks, people would be allowed to exercise and get a sea bath between 3:00 and 6:00 p.m., each day.
She noted, however, that clothing stores, boutiques, hairdressers and barbers were not permitted to operate at this time.
Ms. Mottley urged those businesses not reopening on Monday to take the next two weeks to revise their existing protocols and practices, so they would be ready when their turn came.
She noted that the operation of gyms, massage parlors, and indoor and outdoor contact sports would be prohibited at this time, as well as the use of pleasure crafts.
The Prime Minister outlined those businesses reopening from March 1 as:
Construction, all forms of agriculture and farming, fishing, manufacturing, auto mechanics and repair and other categories that will be defined in the Directive.
Hardware stores, appliance stores, farm and gardening stores, plumbing stores, electronics and IT and telephony stores.
Restaurants and fast-food establishments will be permitted to have curbside pick-ups, drive-through and delivery.
Administrative offices, professional services, parts and repair operations, and government entities such as the Law Courts, The Registry, Post Office, the Land Registry, etc., will reopen, utilizing the minimum physical staff necessary to offer a satisfactory level of service to the public.
Those persons who can function effectively from home should continue to do so, but those needed at the workplace to dispense product or services in those areas should report for duty.
Those who work in the public service will continue to be guided by their permanent secretaries, heads of department or CEOs in state-owned enterprises as to what is their appropriate attendance.
Our Comment:
Sunday closing laws are a prelude to Sunday worship laws. Notice that reopening shops and businesses due to COVID is used as an excuse to formally support Sunday closing laws.
Prophetic Link:
Satan puts his interpretation upon events, and they [leading men] think, as he would have them, that the calamities which fill the land are a result of Sunday-breaking. Thinking to appease the wrath of God, these influential men make laws enforcing Sunday observance. They think that by exalting this false rest-day higher, and still higher, compelling obedience to the Sunday law, the spurious sabbath, they are doing God service. Those who honor God by observing the true Sabbath are looked upon as disloyal to God, when it is really those who thus regard them who are themselves disloyal, because they are trampling under foot the Sabbath originated in Eden. Maranatha, page 176.