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VOLUME:117 No.86, MARCH 25TH, 2020

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ALICIA WALLACE: NOT PUNISHMENT - JUST PROTECTION

30 MORE DAYS? Bethel suggests extension to lockdown likely

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Tribune Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net WHEN Parliament convenes on Monday it will likely agree to extend the 24-hour curfew based on the recommendation of medical experts.

These experts have recommended the curfew be extended for at least another 30 days, according to Attorney General Carl Bethel. However, he later added a 14-day extension may also be discussed.

Speaking ahead of a Cabinet meeting, Mr Bethel also said it was possible the government’s clampdown would become stricter, saying bank closures were among the considerations. However, the decision would be based on the advice of medical professionals.

He said yesterday:

“The House of Assembly is scheduled to meet on Monday to debate the question of extending the curfew, but I can let Bahamians know that first of all we are in close consultation with the opposition and they agree that we should follow the medical advice of the medical professionals, and at a meeting held with them a few days ago, the strong advice from the medical practitioners who are leading this fight is that we must extend the curfew for at least another 30 days.�

Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis imposed a 9pm-5am curfew which began last Friday. On Monday, the curfew was extended to 24 hours. The curfew and other restrictions contained in two emergency orders are set to expire on March 31.

SEE PAGE FIVE

AIRLINES WE’LL NEED A BAILOUT

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

SEE PAGE THREE

HEALTH Minister Dr Duane Sands announced the country’s first confirmed case of COVID-19 outside of New Providence yesterday, a woman in Grand Bahama with no significant recent travel history.

The country now has five confirmed cases of the virus, with the first case,

a 61-year-old New Providence woman, discharged from hospital yesterday, he said.

Health officials said the Grand Bahama resident presented herself to the healthcare system with a mild respiratory illness and was tested after she developed shortness of breath.

She is currently doing well and is not hospitalised, they said.

SEE PAGE THREE

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net

WITH the COVID-19 pandemic threatening to hit the country with a $1bn loss or more, Finance Minister Peter Turnquest said yesterday it is likely the economy is already in a recession. “The fact is we’re probably already in recession and this is not just a gentle recession, this looks like it’s going to be a deep, very stark recession,� he told reporters outside of Cabinet yesterday. “Hopefully, again we can get this virus under control before the July, August timeframe so that we can have an opportunity to catch ourselves before the third quarter.

GB RECORDS FIFTH CONFIRMED CASE By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Senior Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

‘IT’S GOING TO BE DEEP RECESSION’

QUEUES forming outside shops yesterday

Photo: Terrel W Carey Sr/Tribune Staff

EXTENDED CURFEW ORDER SPARKS SHOPPING FRENZY By EARYEL BOWLEG ebowleg@tribunemedia.net SHOPPERS flocked to grocery stores yesterday, queuing for hours in long lines after Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis announced a daily 24-hour curfew and more restrictions for the country.

When The Tribune canvassed several stores in New Providence yesterday many had social distancing markers outside to remind people how far apart they must be. However, this newspaper also observed some lines where people were not standing far apart.

Super Value’s Golden Gates location had a heavy police presence.

According to shopper Phillip Roberts, he saw five different patrol vehicles while queuing for an hour and one vehicle which was stationary at the time making sure people over 60 got to go in.

Mr Roberts said the line was moving until 9am, when the store had to make sure the elderly were serviced.

He said some people were agitated. “One or two who said they don’t see the sense in us spacing ourselves because it causes the line to be extremely long and they were saying that they wanted to go walk ahead of everybody but at the end of the day if you don’t wait on the line, then leave,� he said.

Yet, he had no complaints about the measures and felt they were “a good idea�.

Mr Roberts blamed Bahamians for causing more stricter actions to be taken. “Really we the Bahamian people have caused this on ourselves because if we had listened to what was being said earlier with the social gatherings and all that type of stuff, if we would adhere to that then it wouldn’t have got to 24 hours curfew because when he (Dr Minnis) had it from nine to five people were still going on the beach, and gatherings and partying as usual.�

Super Value’s Cable Beach location had a line

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SEE PAGE TWO

PRIVATE Bahamian airlines will require financial assistance “to get back in the game� once the COVID-19 crisis has passed, an industry operator warned yesterday.

Anthony K Hamilton, president of the Bahamas Association of Air Transport Operators, told Tribune Business that most operators will shutdown as of midday today until March 31 after the government’s emergency powers expanded to include the domestic aviation sector.

He added the industry’s attention was also focused on ensuring any remaining visitors - especially those on the Family Islands - were brought to Nassau so they could return home.

FULL STORY - SEE BUSINESS

TECHNOLOGY

ROBO-HELPERS ASSIST WITH HOUSEKEEPING

SEE PAGE NINE

PAGE 2, Wednesday, March 25, 2020

THE TRIBUNE

CORONAVIRUS CRISIS from page one extending to the door of Wendy’s, which is on the other end of the plaza.

One woman said no one was allowed to go in until 15 people came out of the store and another person on the line said people had some verbal exchanges with police due to the long wait.

One man who gave his name only as Mr Bowe complained that Dr Minnis’ announcement did not give people enough time to prepare to buy their food. In fact, he believes giving the public less time to shop will cause more problems.

He explained: “... As you enforce these things you got to remember there

Extended curfew order sparks shopping frenzy are thousands of people in these communities that have to do the same thing at the same time. So when you shrink that time that they have, you are creating more of a problem for the people to catch the corona instead of alleviating it.

“We’re trying to get used to what the government is

enforcing, right. But it is not going to happen overnight.”

Some shoppers were peeved about people trying to skip the line using the door where senior citizens were allowed to enter.

People could be seen shouting by the door as others, who did not appear to be over 60, were allowed to

come in. “They’re coming in with their children and then other people jumping them and going in and they allowing them to go in and it’s not right,” one woman said. “Where’s the system?

The system isn’t working.

You gotta be fair because that will cause people to get angry and start rioting.”

Quality Market on West Bay Street had a shorter line compared with other stores The Tribune visited.

Dereka Miller said she visited three different stores yesterday morning before coming to Quality Market.

“One on Prince Charles, I went to one in South Beach and came to one up here and the lines was like literally wrap around - the lines were long.

So just have to wait,” Ms Miller explained. “... Honestly, I’m expecting to be out here about an hour and a half. Anything over that, I have to leave cause the lines are a little ridiculous but hopefully it looks like it’s moving.”

Under Dr Minnis’ second emergency order, people should only leave their homes for work if they are an essential or exempted worker; to purchase food, medicine or fuel, go to a

SHOPPERS flocked to grocery stores yesterday, queuing for hours in long lines after a daily 24-hour curfew was announced.

Photos: Terrel W Carey Sr/ Tribune Staff

bank or to visit a doctor.

Exercise outside the home is permitted, but only for 90 minutes a day, while public beaches and popular hang out spots have been closed.

Supermarkets must ensure that all customers and staff maintain a physical distance of no less than six feet in or outside their

business; and determine the number of people that may be permitted in the establishment at any one time by permitting one person for every 30 square feet of store space.

Within 24 hours from the order, store owners were to place distance markers six feet apart, indicating where each customer must stand on a line at a checkout point. The markers are to also be placed outside the stores where customers must stand while they wait to enter.

Dr Minnis also said stores should have special hours for the elderly to shop, between 9am-11am.

THE TRIBUNE

Wednesday, March 25, 2020, PAGE 3

CORONAVIRUS CRISIS from page one Dr Merceline DahlRegis, health consultant to the Office of the Prime Minister, said the woman has no link to the first case.

For his part, Minister of State for Grand Bahama Kwasi Thompson urged residents of Grand Bahama not to panic. “Your Grand Bahama health services coronavirus task force has been working along with the national task force to prepare for this eventuality,” he said at the press conference.

Dr Sands emphasised that the restrictions Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis announced on Monday, including a 24-hour curfew, applies to all islands.

“Anecdotally,” Dr Sands said, “the greatest concern was in New Providence but we want to be very clear that the regulations and

Grand Bahama records fifth confirmed case

recommendations which hold for New Providences apply to the entire Commonwealth of the Bahamas.

This virus does not discriminate and we do not wish to see any of our citizens negatively impacted. In response to these initiatives, what we would like to see as we assess is an impactful reduction in community transmission and a net limit on the total number of cases and a minimal or zero deaths.”

Mr Thompson said through his observation, Grand Bahama residents

have been complying with Dr Minnis’ order.

“For the most part what I’ve observed are persons in Grand Bahama abiding by the first order put into place,” Mr Thompson said.

“It’s too soon to say about the second order but we’ve been advised again by the Royal Bahamas Police Force who have been out and assessing the situation that persons have been complying. The important point to emphasise is we want persons to stay home unless it is absolutely

necessary and (to leave home) only in the circumstances that the order speaks to.”

Dr Dahl-Regis said officials anticipate a surge in coronavirus cases. “We look at the experiences from many countries, plus we’re studying the virus and its pathway,” she said. “We’re also looking at the onset of the first case, new cases, addition of new cases, recovery time and mortality, that is the flow of the stages that is informing our response and preparation but based

MINISTER Dr Duane Sands

on a review of that, we anticipate (a surge) and it’s better to be prepared for it.”

Dr Sands said nearly 200 people have been tested for COVID-19 so far. The first 300 of 10,000 ordered test kits have arrived in the country, he said, and an additional 2,500 kits are expected in New Providence by mid-week.

Dr Dahl-Regis said once the additional test kits arrive, officials will be better able to say how they will be used. “We certainly want to test more people,” she said.

IT was all quiet on The Bahamas front when The Tribune took a tour around Nassau yesterday following the order for a 24 hour lockdown Photos: Shawn Hanna/Tribune Staff

Bethel suggests extension to lockdown likely from page one When asked if stricter measures are coming to fight the spread of COVID19, Mr Bethel said: “We can get stricter but right now, for example, we could shut down all the banks forthwith on the basis and understanding that most persons have some form or method of withdrawing cash from banks and there are deposit machines.

“These are ATM machines both for the purposes of deposits and

withdrawal and that the majority of workers in this country receive their payments by electronic means in any event so these are all things to be considered.”

Following Cabinet, Mr Bethel called in to a local talk show, explaining yesterday’s lockdown came after advice from medical experts.

He said the newest emergency order, which mandated the closure of airports and seaports, came out of great concern from officials about Bahamians crowding beaches at the weekend. The new order

came into force Tuesday at 9am. “. . . The health professionals were somewhat concerned particularly as a result of what occurred over the weekend where there were beach parties along the length and breadth of the country as a matter of fact and enormous amounts of close social contact for protracted periods,” he said on 96.9FM’s The Revolution with Juan McCartney.

“So these were the matters that kind of compelled the government because the medical professionals were extremely concerned.

“So what will happen on Monday (in Parliament) is that there will be a resolution and the resolution will be debated and tabled at that time with the possibility of a 30-day or perhaps another 14-day extension depending mostly on medical advice.”

While some have applauded the government for the measures, others have said they have gone too far with the closure of liquor stores. Mr Bethel said the government considered listing these stores as exempt but ultimately

decided to keep these businesses closed. As for the ability to move under the 24-hour curfew, he said everyone has the right to leave their homes for essential reasons.

He was asked on The Revolution if police could deny citizens this right.

However, he stressed that police officers, according to the order, do have the discretion when it comes to movement. “No, no, no, no. Everybody has a right to leave their homes for an essential purpose or to obtain an essential service.

You have a right to go to the pharmacy, a right to go to the doctor, a right to go and buy food or get takeaway food et cetera. Nobody can tell you you can’t do that because that is a right that is retained for the citizen on the basis that these are essential services.

“What is being restricted is the ability to just hop in my car and say I’ll just go for a drive. If I as a citizen am stopped by police, they are entitled to ask and you are advised to answer where are you going in that car,” Mr Bethel said.

to be able to ensure that we have a level of control over what obviously the world is grappling with right now, the public transportation had to be shut down.

“We know Bahamians are extremely industrious, the Bahamian people are brilliant. We are the most bold, beautiful (and) brilliant people on the planet.

“We have family members and those who would’ve taken the public transportation system normally, obviously would be able to get assistance from family members and others who would be able to drive them to the requisite places that they would need to go.”

His comments came

after operators told The Tribune bus drivers would lose income of up to $1,200 per week due to the emergency orders issued by the government.

Under the orders, no omnibuses or jitneys are to be in service to the public until March 31.

Asked yesterday whether the government had plans to help those drivers, the minister replied: “We did have a discussion. I had a discussion with the union of bus drivers. A two-hour discussion with them on Friday morning and they (have) spoken to the media, agreeing to what the government had put in place in regard to the transportation industry.”

Mr Wells also addressed concerns about the impact COVID-19 will have on postal services.

He said while his ministry is considering shutting down its “satellite stations”, officials are still committed to providing mail services to the Bahamian public.

“What the reality is we have skeleton crews in many of the ministries, only essential services. “The post office is a port of entry so we have taken the requisite steps as a port of entry to try to protect the postal workers who would be sorting,” he noted.

“We were shutting down the satellite stations. That was the initial thinking and

that only the central post office, the main post office at the Town Centre Mall would be open.

“We’re still as you know, as we’re moving through this, we’re thinking about

what best practices is, given the extreme circumstances that we’re in, but we’re seeking to still deliver services to the Bahamian people, but in a way that is safe.”

WELLS DEFENDS MOVE TO CLOSE DOWN BUSES

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net

TRANSPORT and Local Government Minister Renward Wells defended the government’s decision to shut down the public transportation system, saying the move was necessary to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Speaking ahead of a Cabinet meeting yesterday, he told reporters: “Our first and primary focus and responsibility is the protection of the life of the Bahamian people.

“So, we took the decision that in order to try (to) flatten out the curve, in order

PAGE 4, Wednesday, March 25, 2020

THE TRIBUNE

CORONAVIRUS CRISIS

12 CHARGED WITH CURFEW VIOLATIONS

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

TWELVE people were charged yesterday with violating the national curfew imposed by Prime Minister Hubert Minnis - two on Grand Bahama and ten on Abaco.

Police said Antonio Brown, Vandyke Stuart, Leoland Storr, Vandyke Stuart Jr, Donald John, Darren McIntosh, Oniel Archer, Calis Meuze and Jermaine Missick were charged in Abaco yesterday.

The men all pleaded guilty, were convicted and fined $1,500 or three months at the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services. The

fines are to be paid by Friday.

Another man, Commar Richards, was also charged but was remanded to custody until his residency status can be confirmed by the Department of Immigration.

In Grand Bahama, Raymond Moxey, 53, of Frobisher Drive, Freeport, appeared before Magistrate Rengin Johnson. He pleaded guilty to the charge of curfew violation and was fined $250 or two months at BDCS. Benjamin Antonio, 62, of Fawcette Lane, Freeport, appeared before Deputy Chief Magistrate Debbye Ferguson on the same charge. He pleaded guilty and was remanded to prison.

RAYMOND MOXEY, left, and Benjamin Antonio outside court yesterday.

Police will be there to help, says Dames

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Senior Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net NATIONAL Security Minister Marvin Dames said police will not enforce Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis’ emergency COVID-19 orders in an intimidating way, emphasising the point is to save lives, not punish people.

“It’s not that we want to put the police out there to arrest everyone,” he told The Tribune yesterday.

“That’s not the objective.

Police are not out there to intimidate you or talk down to you. Will it happen?

Maybe it will from time to time and we will deal with that, but they’re there to advise you, to tell you you’re in contravention of this, you shouldn’t be doing this. It might be a little inconvenient but they want to know people are keeping safe.”

He spoke to The Tribune after Police Commissioner Anthony Ferguson said people uncertain about whether they will be given road access to access essential services under the 24-hour curfew should call 311.

“Call 311 for any query one has,” Commissioner Ferguson told this newspaper. “311 will give you an understanding of what you will be allowed to do and give you better access to what you are actually requesting. Officers on the checkpoints are really there for enforcement purposes.

They will listen and have some discretion but the info should be channeled from the command centre to the various checkpoints.

NATIONAL Security Minister Marvin Dames and, inset, Police Commissioner Anthony Ferguson If there are really necessities for you to leave home, you should dial the 311 with the information about your location and where you are travelling. Once you get to the checkpoint, present a proper ID and the officers will say we got this information concerning you. There will be cases, emergencies, serious illnesses, where you cannot call 311 beforehand and the officers will deal with those situations accordingly.”

It is not mandatory that residents call 311, but Mr Dames said it would be proactive to do so.

“Unless you have an extreme emergency,” he

said, “if you know about these things ahead of time that you want to do, it’s important to be proactive to make sure the commissioner and his team are aware and they will guide you accordingly and in line with the emergency orders. That makes it easier too because if you do that, then if you’re stopped because you will be stopped somehow, they will be very much on the alert.”

Mr Dames said police will face limits enforcing Dr Minnis’ order.

“If you decide to have 50 people in your house, that’s difficult for officers to police,” he said. “The

success depends on each and every one of us and how serious we are about this pandemic and our willingness to follow the rules.

“People get the message. We could put police all in the streets but that shouldn’t be the answer.

What this speaks to now is how responsible we want to be, how considerate we are about ourselves and the people around us, understanding that this here is no play, we see people dying every day around the world, we can’t afford to risk that,” Mr Dames said.

Commissioner Ferguson, nonetheless, said officers may not be tolerant

of requests to visit fast food restaurants. “By now,” he said, “from the time the prime minister made the announcement, people should have food in their house. You shouldn’t wake up (at) 10am and say ‘I feel like eating Wendy’s.’ Police is very unlikely to give you that consent just to go to Wendy’s. Everybody should practice familial norms and be cooking.”

Supermarket requests “are different” he said. “We may find you have a legitimate reason to go to the supermarkets. People have special diets and you may run out of food so that is very necessary.

“But the point is we want people to obey the orders. Stay inside on your premises and obey the safe distancing and avoid interacting with too many people, that is key. The more we understand that as a people and allow the health professionals to do their thing to monitor this, the better,” the police chief said.

Among the essential purposes for which people can move around during the curfew are banking, groceries, refueling, washing clothes, doctor visits and outdoor exercises.

Photo: Vandyke Hepburn

HOTLINE TO HELP VICTIMS OF VIOLENCE THE economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic and the social restrictions meant to stop the spread of COVID-19 may lead to anger and physical violence in households, the Bahamas Crisis Centre has said.

Those who are feeling frustrated or who are victims of violence should call the centre’s 24-hour hotline.

“The lockdown of our nation is critical to stopping the spread of COVID-19, and as a country we need to follow the emergency regulation guidelines if we are to survive this pandemic,” Bahamas Crisis Centre director Sandra Dean-Patterson noted in a statement.

“However, while we are living under curfew with concerns for our health and physical well-being, our jobs and financial security, with our day-to-day movements limited and access to our usual social activities restricted, it is normal and understandable to experience stress and frustration.

“The tension associated with this might be released as anger and in some cases physical violence and directed towards other members of our households.

“The Bahamas Crisis Centre offers a 24-hour hotline, which is answered by persons trained to understand these situations and to listen, support and encourage anyone (male or female) who is feeling alone, anxious, frustrated, unsafe or fearful in their home.

“This is a time of uncertainties and unknowns for us all and as a nation; we must do all that we can to help each other.”

The hotline can be reached at (242) 328- 0922.

If there are problems getting through to that number, please call (242) 565-9633.

DONATIONS NEEDED FOR SENIOR CITIZEN HOMES

By TANYA SMITH-CARTWRIGHT ts-cartwright @tribunemedia.net

OPERATORS of senior citizens homes are appealing to the government and the public for donations to help them get through the COVID-19 lockdown.

While the homes have suspended visits from the public to protect vulnerable residents from the deadly disease, officials say food, adult diapers and protective medical gear like gloves and masks are desperately needed.

Rev Dr Kendal Capron, of Good Samaritan Senior Citizens Home, said staff will be happy to accept donations at the building’s front gate. He also said the

home’s phone has been disconnected and expressed anger it occurred during a national crisis.

“We are low on food and Depends (adult diapers),” Rev Capron said.

“Even though we took the precautionary measures, we have no more masks.

We are accepting all donations at this time and even though we can’t let anyone into the home, staff will come to the gate to collect.

We are in urgent need of help.

“One of the challenges we face right now is that our telephone has been disconnected. We went to pay the bill and the office is closed. How can they turn off a phone to a place like this at a time like this? If we have an emergency how

can we call out? This is not right,” he said.

He said he hopes the home will get help from the Department of Social Services.

Meanwhile, Unity House is running short of gloves and masks, founder and administrator Rev Janet Smith-Butler told The Tribune. She too thought the government would have offered some assistance to senior citizen homes.

“We have done everything the Ministry of Health has advised us to do,” Rev Smith-Butler said. “I thought the government was going to assist us. I really did, but instead I had to go on my personal account to make sure we had things at the home. We stocked up on vinegar and

baking soda to help with cleaning and got some of the necessities to get us through.

“Our patients are secure and our staff are practicing all the good sanitary measures to keep us all safe from this virus. As the government has advised us, we are all taking this very, very seriously. Most importantly, I advised staff to make sure our residents are comfortable and not put in a state of panic. So we are just following all the guidelines and making sure they understand what is going on around them without making them panic.”

Pat Moxey, of Pat’s Senior Citizens Home, said residents at the facility are doing well, but she too lamented the fact that the

government has not offered more assistance with getting needed supplies.

“We have beds that we can offer the government for those who are actual boarders at the hospital,” said Ms Moxey. “We have a mini-hospital here and we are ready to assist. We have lots of spare beds here and we ask the minister of health to come and see us because we can help.

“We are, for the most part, doing okay, but I am disappointed that there is no assistance for us from (Department of) Social Services. The government has only called and told us what to do in terms of precautionary measures but we wish they would offer some sort of assistance in regards to the virus and the lockdown.

Even though I saw to it that we had proper provisions in terms of food etc, we can use more supplies. We should have had some assistance.

I made sure the residents here had enough fruits and vegetables, but we could use more things.”

Ms Moxey said Pat’s Senior Citizen’s Home is sanitised three times a day and all staff are medical professionals. She said staff take all the precautionary measures to sanitise before they have entered the home and while they are there. Visitation at Pat’s has been suspended during the lockdown.

Health experts have said the elderly and people with pre-existing conditions are more likely to die if they contract the disease.

THE TRIBUNE

Wednesday, March 25, 2020, PAGE 5

CORONAVIRUS CRISIS

DAVIS URGES PEOPLE TO COMPLY WITH MEASURES PLP leader Philip “Brave” Davis has urged residents to exercise self-discipline and comply with emergency measures Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis has imposed to limit the spread of COVID-19. Mr Davis said he met with Dr Minnis yesterday morning to discuss the latest measures, which were announced on Monday night. These include a

from page one “I think if we run into the quarter with things the way they are, I think we’re going to have some very significant problems not only locally, but globally.”

His comments come amid growing public concern about the economic impact the virus will have on Bahamian livelihoods.

Last week, Baha Mar, Sandals, Atlantis and the Melia resorts announced their plans to suspend operations, with Tourism Minister Dionisio D’Aguilar saying on Sunday the unemployment rate is now probably above 30 percent and expected to grow.

Noting the country will face “serious challenges” in the days ahead, the deputy prime minister said the total economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic could result in more than a $1bn loss - something he has forecast could be the case by mid-July.

“Obviously, these are going to be very difficult times for us,” Mr Turnquest said.

“Our worst-case scenario up to this point is somewhere around a billion dollars in loss of the economy. With the shutdown now, we certainly have to go back and reevaluate. I expect that that would probably go higher, unfortunately.

“So, I think this is going to be a long-term problem for us, certainly well into the new year.”

However, he added: “But, we will address whatever the challenges are in the new budget that will be passed in June.

“We believe that up to this point, we have sufficient headroom to run us through the end of this fiscal year and unless things dramatically change and they can, we should be able to get to the next budget cycle where we will mop up and address whatever the longer-term challenges may be.”

24-hour curfew and a lockdown of the country. “These measures are to expire on the 31st March 2020, at which time the government has promised to revisit all of these emergency measures,” he said.

“It is widely agreed that these measures are absolutely necessary to mitigate against the further spread of the coronavirus.

I reiterate to all Bahamians and

residents residing in The Bahamas to exercise self-discipline and comply with these latest rounds of emergency measures which are designed to safeguard and protect the lives, health and general wellbeing of all Bahamians and residents. These measures are in line with World Health Organization guidelines.

“The Progressive Liberal Party

will continue to monitor these developments, the impact these measures are having on our country and assist in this national effort to combat this public health crisis.

I encourage each Bahamian and resident to take full responsibility for their health and the health of their family by doing his or her part to achieve the best possible outcome for our country,”

Mr Davis said. His statement is a turnaround from the position he took last Thursday, hours after Dr Minnis announced his first emergency order - which mandated a 9pm-5am curfew and the closure of most businesses with few exceptions. At the time, Mr Davis said the measures appeared rushed and may adversely impact the public.

‘This looks like it’s going to be a deep, very stark recession’ After the country recorded its first case of COVID-19 more than a week ago, the government announced several relief measures for workers in the tourism industry who will be most affected by the virus’ global impact.

The measures include $4m to provide food assistance and social support for displaced workers directly impacted by the virus and a $10m allocation for a temporary unemployment assistance through NIB for self-employed tourism workers.

However, in recent days, some Bahamians have been calling for additional relief measures, including the suspension of rent and other utility payments in view of the fast spreading disease.

But, with Hurricane Dorian having already inflicted an estimated $3.4bn in losses and damage on the Bahamian economy, Mr Turnquest said: “We have serious challenges ahead of us, trying to mop up whatever restoration efforts that need to be done to make sure that structures are sound, and people have some place to shelter for the upcoming season.

“And by the same token, finance that as well as address this shutdown and what that means for the revenue loss as well as what it means to the businesses that are going to find it very challenging during this particular period and as I said throughout the rest of the year, while we hope that

CLEANING PROGRAMME BEGINS THE Department of Environmental Health Services has embarked on a disinfecting exercise, as a preventive measure to limit the spread of COVID-19.

The cleaning of visibly dirty surfaces such as roads and sidewalks followed by disinfection is a best practice measure for prevention of COVID-19 throughout the communities, says Melony McKenzie, director of the DEHS. The

exercise is being carried out by a team of 12 on rotation, between the hours of 8:30pm to 1am until March 31, 2020; and thereafter if necessary. The areas being targeted are downtown Bay Street, Potter’s Cay Dock, Montagu Beach and fishing ramp, Shirley Street and East Street, the Fish Fry at Arawak Cay, Saunders Beach, Nassau Street, Poinciana Drive and East Street.

this virus is brought under control very quickly.”

In the meantime, the deputy prime minister said officials will be carefully monitoring international markets to see how it will affect the country’s economy in the long-term.

“The truth of the matter is we all know that tourism drives our economy.

The fact that the US in particular, which is our main source market, is experiencing the level of crisis that it is means that the confidence in the US market and the disposable income that people depend upon to travel particularly overseas is going to be very slow.

“It’s going to be as not as available as we would’ve seen in the last couple of years and so that means the long-term effect for us is going to be significant because as we all know, that saying that the US catches the cold and we catch the flu, literally we might catch the flu on this one.

“As there is a lag in the downside effects to us, so there will be a lag in the recovery for us. So, we have to watch the US market and what’s happening there (and) we have to watch the European market and what’s happening there and try to work our way around the edges.”

FINANCE Minister Peter Turnquest

VENDORS UNDERSTAND THE NEED FOR LOCKDOWN

By FARRAH JOHNSON fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

VENDORS at Arawak Cay and Potter’s Cay Dock said while the temporary closure of their businesses is unfortunate, they understand the shutdown is necessary to deter the spread of COVID-19 locally.

On Monday, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis ordered a daily 24-hour curfew and mandated the closure of all public beaches, the Fish Fry at Arawak Cay and the stalls at Potter’s Cay Dock.

Vendors at the popular food spots yesterday told The Tribune they are willing to comply with the newly imposed restrictions, because they understand the country is currently in a “state of emergency”.

Rodney Russell, president of the Arawak Cay Conch, Fish, Vegetable & Food Vendors Association, said he believed the government extended the curfew to be “proactive” in its response to the contagious disease.

“I think that the prime minister of The Bahamas has made the right decision and I think the decision ought to be adhered to,” he said.

“What else can he do?

This is a destination for a lot of persons and if we are infected and the world hears that we are infected, dog eat our lunch.”

Mr Russell added that many restaurant operators were making the most of the shutdown and using the free

time to tie up loose ends at their establishments.

“Right now, out here is quiet,” he told this newspaper. “Most of the vendors here are doing the little odd jobs that they wanted to do.

Some are painting up and some are just cleaning up inside and giving the kitchens a good clean up.

“They’re taking this time now to be as clean and pristine as possible so when this is over, we could all know more about cleanliness and keeping our environment clean.”

When asked whether he expected the coronavirus to have such an immense impact on the country’s tourism industry so quickly, he added: “This not only affects Arawak Cay, because we’re only a small part of the country’s revenue stream.

“But it affects the entire Bahamas and whatever affects the entire country also affects us, because a lot of the visitors who come to The Bahamas hear about Arawak Cay and want to experience it.

“So therefore, if our visitors are being impeded, so is everything else. Our hotels, our tourism industry, our straw market — everywhere that tourists in this country want to go and see and the Bahamians want to take them is impacted.”

Still, Mr Russell said he was confident that Fish Fry would be able to “bounce back” once the outbreak ends.

“I don’t know how long this pandemic will continue,

but it cannot last forever,” he said. “And whenever it is over, Arawak Cay will be blooming like a new flower.

“Our people are used to going out and enjoying themselves. We’re not used to being restricted and we don’t know what restriction is. So the minute this is all over, this country will be blooming again.”

Mr Russell added that fishermen on the Family Islands have already started stocking up on seafood to sell when the industry picks up again.

“There’s no fear right now. The fishermen are waiting for when this is over too, because they know that the economy will turn around and they know that once this pandemic has been cleared, Bahamians will be coming to Fish Fry and they will be able to send their stuff to us.”

Mr Russell also said he believed the temporary shutdown will make vendors more aware of the importance of practicing good hygiene.

“I think it will make us more cognizant of our environment and what we ought to be doing in order to keep our customers safe,” he said.

“I think this is also going to really wake up persons at Arawak Cay and make the public more aware to pay more attention to those establishments that they go to, to make sure that they are following the health standards.”

Down at Potter’s Cay Dock, Giovanni Sawyer,

the owner of Island Delight, said he expected the shutdown after seeing how the coronavirus impacted other countries.

“Seeing what’s going on right now in the world and even in our country, it’s only right that they shut the place down to try and fight this virus off,” he said.

“I’ve thought about it and I think it’s definitely going to have an affect on us in the long run in months to come, but we still have to do what we have to do.”

Mr Sawyer said during the curfew, he plans to stay home with his family to make sure they are safe.

He added that “working is like a thing of the past” to

him at the moment, because he can’t be bothered to “worry about making money,” while there is a possibility the pandemic may worsen.

“I mean everyone is actually going through the same thing with losing their jobs and the hotels shutting down for months,” he said.

“So basically everyone is feeling the pinch all at the same time.

“But once we get the okay to clear, open up and sell again, we’ll be back out there to see exactly what happens.”

Mr Sawyer said he was confident Potter’s Cay Dock vendors would be able to get back to business

as usual once the curfew is lifted.

“As soon as the guards are dropped and Bahamians are able to go about and get back on with their regular lives, they’re going to be out here,” he insisted.

“They’re going to come out and enjoy themselves, because being locked down in a house for days, weeks or months is a long time and we ain’t used to that kind of stuff. So I think they are going to definitely come out for their conch salad, their fried fish and all that good stuff that they are used to having.”

The emergency orders issued by Dr Minnis expire on March 31.

PAGE 6, Wednesday, March 25, 2020

THE TRIBUNE

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Get used to the curfew it’ll be with us for a while THE confirmation of a new case of coronavirus seemingly unrelated to the previous patients is a reminder of the urgency to maintain our discipline in the lockdown presently in place across our nation.

The Grand Bahama patient announced yesterday seems to have no connection with any of the earlier cases, and her lack of strong symptoms demonstrates the difficulty in containing this virus.

That, plus the lack of discipline shown by many prior to the full 24-hour curfew being imposed, means it is increasingly likely that the curfew will be extended.

Talks are underway – and it may be extended for at least another 30 days, although a 14-day option may be on the table too.

We do not pretend that this will be easy for people. Being stuck at home for a prolonged period of time will be difficult, but the alternative is worse.

We hope that the creativity and determination of our nation will shine through to help people at this time – already we have seen DJs entertaining people from their homes, comedians using their talents to get the message across and more. We will need such talents as the curfew takes its toll on our patience and our spirits.

But if the measures in place are not observed, all that goes to waste. All that sacrifice is for nothing.

The medics are doing their part.

Nearly 200 people have been tested so far – though officials acknowledge they need to do more, and that they want to do more. The first 300 of another 10,000 test kits have arrived with an extra 2,500 due soon. That will help to expand the range of testing so we can isolate this virus more effectively, even as we isolate ourselves.

There still needs to be some improvements in communications, to make sure

all officials are presenting the same message and that there is no confusion, particularly over what the curfew allows. Already, the Prime Minister had to reiterate the ability of media to travel to effectively report on the situation.

Everything should be done to ensure there are no other conflicts in messages – people are unsure enough in these times.

There are few places to go for people with the curfew in place – with many flocking to stores yesterday to stock up.

Some teething troubles over ensuring access for senior citizens occurred yesterday, while other people who tried to jump the queues outside the store were swiftly told to join the line.

As the curfew goes on, some of those tempers in the lines outside will become frayed – but please remember, this is all for our own safety. With so few places to go and people shut up at home, places where people gather such as stores become the few spots where the virus can be transmitted through the community. So stay patient, stay apart from one another and only shop if you need to.

In all this, there is the knowledge that this is not a political game being played, this is being guided by the advice of medical experts, and with the benefit of seeing what measures have worked best elsewhere.

The sooner we stop any further transmission, the sooner this curfew will be able to come to an end. Break the curfew unnecessarily and you’re not just taking a risk with your own health, you’re risking the health and wealth of the nation.

We fear it will not be, but we pray this fifth case will be the last. Still, at the same time as that news came, there was a piece of good news too – the first patient to be diagnosed in the country has now recovered, and been discharged from hospital. A little light of hope for us all that we can all come through this.

See the danger and put the coffin on hold EDITOR, The Tribune BAHAMIANS are complaining about government’s restrictions on their activities, while America’s president is fighting to lift the severe business restrictions in the US to preserve the strength of the almighty dollar — obviously to secure his own re-election!

Many Bahamians see the wisdom of government’s curtailing their activities to fight the devastating corona virus, while others complain. However, when one follows the path of this killer disease, and the results of China’s immediate and seemingly effective action in the town of Wuhan, where it all began, our government, with far fewer resources, is justified in taking these seemingly draconian measures to save Bahamian lives.

The number of new infections reported in China has

been declining, indicating to World Health Organisation officials that transmission there was slowing and that China’s containment measures were working. The panic has now moved to Europe and the US – and the Bahamas.

The following is part of an account written by Ching-Ching Ni, editor in chief of the Chinese website at the New York Times.

Mrs Ni spent more than eight weeks in isolation in Beijing with her husband and two daughters as China launched one of the most aggressive efforts to fight the virus.

On March 23 she wrote: “After eight weeks of social isolation and working from home, I stepped outside for the first time to a changed world. Everyone wore a mask, from kids jumping rope to couples out on dates. Even customers sipping coffee had their masks around their necks.

“Many businesses are open again, but with signs that say ‘do not enter without a mask.’ One restaurant told customers to remove masks only when eating.

A friend tried to take off his mask in a park. A cop appeared out of nowhere to demand that he cover up again.

“Maybe China’s draconian measures are working.

Everything seems both back to normal and never the same. Until the rest of the world is out of the woods, let’s keep hunkering down and do all we can to make sure we get through this together,” she wrote.

It is best for Bahamians to recognise the danger, follow the rules and put the inevitable coffin on hold.

CONCERNED BAHAMIAN Nassau, March 24, 2020

Crisis must not spark a ‘fire sale’ EDITOR, The Tribune The tragic danger of current events for The Bahamas is that our government will treat the impending crisis in the world economy as an opportunity to double down on the fire sale approach they have taken toward foreign investment projects, rather than reflecting on how badly recent governments have squandered this country’s abundant opportunities for sustainable and equitable growth.

It is a predictable response to every crisis.

Last autumn, in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian’s massive blow to revenues, a person as respectable as former Central Bank Governor James Smith suggested that the fiscal crisis justified the removal of Bahamians-only ownership restrictions on certain categories of economic activity in The Bahamas.

While Mr. Smith did not explain just how loosening these rules would boost either the economy or revenues, it should be clear to all that it would do neither.

Revenues have failed to keep up with levels of foreign investment precisely because governments have needlessly foregone direct revenues via vast tax concessions. They then try to make up the difference by mercilessly squeezing taxes out of the Bahamian consumer, which in turn dampens growth in the domestic economy, completing the downward cycle.

LETTERS letters@tribunemedia.net Further, by permitting foreign entities to compete in the domestic economy – which our oncesuccessful economic model never anticipated them to do – recent governments have undermined domestic growth and promoted revenue leakage, since foreigners (be they cruise ship night club owners or real estate developers pretending to be hoteliers) repatriate their profits.

Had we spent the last decades earning the revenues that we should have earned from direct taxes on the tens of billions of dollars of direct foreign investment we have seen, or if we had a Real Property Tax regime focused on our status as an elite, high end destination for second homes, we would have had a veritable revenue war chest, rather than be scraping the barrel after every unforeseen emergency.

Likewise, had the record 7 million tourists we attracted last year correlated in any rational way to the revenues we get from tourism, we would have no crisis on a scale to provoke any radical change of course.

So it is mind-boggling that, instead of recognizing that successive governments have, through stupid and uninformed policies, severed the correlation

between robust foreign investment, revenue performance and growth in the domestic economy, anyone would propose giving even more of our economy away to foreigners as a solution to underperformance.

It reminds me of the tragic events surrounding the death of George Washington in 1799. The ex-President was probably suffering from nothing more life-threatening than seasonal flu. What was genuinely life-threatening, however, was the “cure”.

The most eminent practitioners of 18th Century quackery all agreed that what was needed was some vigorous “bleeding”, a long-debunked practice of draining supposedly ailing blood from a patient.

Needless to say, every time the old General failed to rally from the last session, the “experts” took this as evidence that he wasn’t bled enough and proceeded to drain more life blood from the poor man until the inevitable occurred.

They then presumably were overcome with guilt that they had left any blood in him at all.

So it is with those who suggest that our government should respond to these tragedies of its own making by indulging more of the same failed investment and tax policies that created the cycle of underperformance.

ANDREW ALLEN Nassau March 22, 2019

What are we? Chopped liver?

EDITOR, The Tribune ONE hears of private sector companies in the USA and UK making ventilators instead of vacuum cleaners and in the Bahamas when people are being urged to work from home (via Internet) we hear nothing about these

providers increasing their bandwidth or even maintaining agreed bandwidth in line with usage. What are we ? Chopped liver?

BRUCE RAINE Nassau, March 22, 2020.

THE TRIBUNE

Wednesday, March 25, 2020, PAGE 7

“IF YOU can’t be better than your competition,” Vogue editor Anna Wintour once said, “just dress better”.

What makes women decide what to wear?

by Jaimie Arona Krems Assistant Professor of Psychology, Oklahoma State University “IF YOU can’t be better than your competition,” Vogue editor Anna Wintour once said, “just dress better”.

Indeed, new research suggests women don’t just dress to be fashionable, or to outdo one another when it comes to enticing men.

They also dress for other women.

But Wintour’s quote misses some of the nuances that go into the outfits women choose with female friends, co-workers and acquaintances in mind.

It’s not just about dressing better. In fact, my colleagues and I found women can be motivated by another factor: avoiding the slings and arrows of other women.

The psychology of women’s wardrobes My social psychology lab explores how women navigate their social relationships with other women. With my coauthors, Oklahoma State

graduate student Ashley M. Rankin and Arizona State University graduate student Stefanie Northover, I recently studied what goes into women’s fashion choices.

Of course, both men and women consider a variety of concerns when selecting their outfits: cost, fit, occasion.

Existing psychological research on women’s clothing choices tends to centre on how women dress for men – the make-up, shoes and colours they select to impress the opposite sex.

But we posed a different question: How might women dress for other women?

For over a century, psychologists have been interested in competition between men. Only over the past few decades have researchers started to seriously look into how women actively compete with one another.

The competition isn’t necessarily nice. Like men who compete with one another, women can be aggressive toward other What women they’re competing with. But it’s rarely the physical kind.

Instead, social scientists like Joyce Benenson, Kaj Bjorkqvist and Nicole Hess have shown that women are more prone to rely on social exclusion and reputation-damaging gossip.

So we wondered: Do women ever dress defensively – to mitigate the chance that other women might go after them?

We know that women who are physically attractive and who wear revealing clothing are more likely to be targets of same-sex aggression.

For example, psychologists Tracy Vaillancourt and Aanchal Sharma found that women behaved more aggressively toward an attractive woman when she was dressed in a short skirt and low-cut shirt than when that exact same woman wore khakis and a crewneck.

We reasoned that women would be aware of this dynamic – and some would try to avoid it. So we tested this theory in a series of experiments.

Dressing defensively First, we studied whether people would expect

EXISTING psychological research on women’s clothing choices tends to centre on how women dress for men – the make-up, shoes and colours they select to impress the opposite sex.

women to be aggressive toward attractive, scantily clad women.

We asked 142 people to read a scenario about two women, Carol and Sara, who met for coffee after connecting on a friendfinder app that was like Tinder, but for platonic relationships. We asked the participants how they thought Carol would treat Sara during an otherwise uneventful coffee date. Although the scenarios were the same, some people saw a photo of Sara that depicted her as an attractive woman wearing khakis and a crewneck; others saw a photo of her wearing a low-cut shirt and shortskirt; and a third group saw her in the more revealing outfit, but the image had been photoshopped to make her look less physically attractive.

We found when Sara was attractive and revealingly dressed, people expected Carol would be meaner to Sara.

We then wanted to see whether women would also act on the awareness of this dynamic, so we ran a series of experiments

with college-aged and adult women from the U.S. For a set of two studies, we instructed female participants to imagine that they were going to meet new people in a professional setting, like a networking event, or at a social gathering, such as a birthday party.

They were also told to imagine the event as either single-sex or mixed-sex.

In the first, we asked women to draw their ideal outfits for those events, and we later had undergraduate research assistants measure how much skin was revealed. In the second, we asked women to choose outfits from a menu of options – akin to shopping for clothes online. Each of the possible outfits had been rated for modesty by a separate set of participants.

In both studies, women chose more revealing outfits for social events than professional ones. This wasn’t surprising. But interestingly, women chose less revealing outfits to meet up with an all-female group – regardless of whether it was a professional or social setting.

But wouldn’t the more revealing clothing in

mixed-group settings simply reflect their desire to attract men?

Not exactly. Not all women dressed the same for other women. The women who rated themselves as more physically attractive were the ones who chose more modest outfits when meeting up with a group of women. This supports the idea that they were dressing defensively – to avoid bringing attention to themselves and being targeted by the other women.

Because same-sex aggression is more likely to come from strangers than friends, in our final experiment we asked 293 young women, aged 18 to 40, what they would wear to meet up with a prospective female friend.

Again, we found that more physically attractive women indicated that they would dress with more discretion.

Together, these findings show that women don’t always dress to impress.

Nor do they dress to aggress. Instead, there’s a more subtle social dance taking place – one that involves humility, hesitance and heightened awareness.

theconvesation.com

PAGE 8, Wednesday, March 25, 2020

THE TRIBUNE

SHOPPERS look a bit too close together in Grand Bahama yesterday.

Photo: Vandyke Hepburn

W

E are here. What is being called a “24-hour curfew” is now in place and will remain until March 31. Except for essential workers, we are to work remotely or businesses are to pause their operations. The only businesses that should be open are grocery stores, pharmacies, medical supplies and services, hotels, banks, gas stations, laundromats and food takeaways.

No non-essential worker should be on the road or outside of their residential property unless with the express purpose of getting supplies from a business allowed to be open or having up 90 minutes of outdoor exercise. We are to maintain a six-foot distance, at all times, from people who do not live in the same household. Businesses are expected to manage this and clearly mark spaces for customers to stand in lines both to enter their establishments and to cash out.

Following the first emergency order, some Bahamians decided to be defiant. There were beach parties and brunches.

People have behaved in ignorant ways, and this resulted in restrictions being more clearly articulated. There are to be no parties, sporting events, or other kinds of functions that cause people from different households to mix.

This is expressly forbidden.

Weddings and funerals are limited to 10 guests. These restrictions were part of the first order, though not as explicitly stated. The restrictions themselves are not a result of people defying the first order. They are in the first order, but now explained in more detail.

Ignorance exists, but it is not the only reason Additional restrictions were announced in the prime minister’s address on Monday night. Airports are now closed to visitors, domestic travel is not permitted and beaches are now closed. The 9pm to 5am curfew has been expanded to all day, every day.

People have been discussing these changes as though they are a punishment. They think the shutdown has escalated due to the reckless behaviour of the people who decided to gather in large numbers on Sunday. This may have expedited it, but we were going to have to move in this direction.

Paying attention to the news and developments in any other country would show those people that this is the way it works. First, there are small changes.

Social distancing is encouraged. Then, there are limited hours to be in public and limited places to visit.

The window to be off residential property narrows.

We’re not being punished just protected - but we must not forget those who fall through the gaps The

Alicia Wallace column Less people are allowed to cross borders. There are incremental changes.

Whether or not people were foolish enough to have beach parties and brunches, the parameters were going to eventually change. That said, the closure of public beaches in particular probably came as a direct result of the Sunday shenanigans.

Other than that, the country is following a course of action that is very similar to that of other countries.

Some of us are angry. We want someone to blame.

Just last week, we were able to do whatever we wanted to do. Just a few days ago, we were able to do the same, but between 5am and 9pm. Now we are considerably more limited and it is uncomfortable. This is not happening because Bahamians are stupid. It is not happening because of misbehaviour. This is happening because there is a global pandemic that threatens lives, has asymptomatic carriers and passes from person to person.

This is happening because we need to protect ourselves and we obviously would not do that effectively without emergency orders that stipulate what is and is not

permissible based on the information provided by medical professionals.

It’s not about you Maybe you are young and healthy. You feel invincible.

You are not going to get sick from this virus. Even if you do, you’re sure you’ll be fine. That’s great. For you.

There are, however, other people around you. You sit next to them at work. You hang out in the same grandmother’s living room. You touch the same surfaces they touch. You use the same hymn books. You taste soup from the same spoon. You use the same door handles to get in and out.

Droplets can be anywhere.

Droplets are everywhere. You can take them with you without knowing and without feeling the effects. Do you really want to be the reason the elderly woman you help to the car after church every Sunday gets COVID19 and dies? Do you want to give a few droplets to the person ahead of you in line who does not look like she has lupus, but she does?

You be healthy and unafraid, but this is not about you. This is about reducing and slowing the spread.

This is about making sure our health system is able to support people when – not if – they get the virus.

You can’t have a beach party. You can’t go to a church service. You can’t have choir practice. You can’t have your monthly game night. You can’t see a movie in a theatre. You can’t be out after nine o’clock at night. You can’t drink in bar for hours with your friends.

Do you know what else you can’t do? You can’t cause the grave illness or death of another person by unknowingly giving them COVID-19 if you comply with the emergency order.

That matters more than the relatively minor disruptions to your routine.

Mind the gaps The emergency order depends heavily on police for enforcement. We know that police can be overzealous in their application of the law. On the weekend, we saw just how selective not only police officers, but the Commissioner of Police can be. Media personnel were on the street during curfew hours, live-streaming to show us the quiet, desolate streets of Nassau and the presence of police.

The first night was fine, all of them able to move freely. On the second night, a media team led by a well-known personality was denied road access.

The way he handled it was certainly not ideal, but escalation to the Commissioner of Police was not helpful.

The emergency order clearly exempted media, but this person was told that Ferguson was calling the shots as he saw fit.

The next day, the Prime Minister announced that no media should be impeded from their duties and that he had spoken with Ferguson about it. Still, the same media team was not only turned around when attempting to pass police, but escorted back to the studio. This has led people to ask an important question. Who is really in charge? There is another equally important question. How do we ensure the police do not abuse their power, especially as ordinary citizens do not have the privilege of the press?

There are numerous other issues with the current situation.

The emergency order is understandable, but nothing has been put in place to protect or serve the vulnerable.

Information is not readily available in Creole. There are no systems in place to support women experiencing domestic violence, now spending even more time in isolation with abusers.

There is no support for people who are in the informal or gig economy and are being impacted by the measures now in place.

Nothing has been said about the communities we know do not have water piped into homes. Until recently, no mental health services or resources have been promoted at a time when people are experiencing significant change

and high levels of stress.

Bahamas Psychological Association has now set up a hotline - 812-0576 or 815-5850 - in collaboration with Ministry of Health, Pan American Health Organization,and Public Health Authority.

There are large gaps and we are not even being assured that steps are being taken to fill them. The Ministry of Health has the attention of all decisionmakers, but other Ministries and Departments should be carrying out assessments and making recommendations. The expertise of civil society organisations should be put to much better use.

Our response to a crisis should not cause other crises and, sadly, without recognising and filling the gaps, we are headed down that path.

Many countries are having a similar experience, so Feminist Alliance for Rights (FAR) has developed guidelines for implementing feminist policy that will reduce the gaps created by their crisis response. It has been endorsed by over 500 individuals and organisations and sent to directly to states. It can be viewed at tiny.cc/feministstatement. Read it, identify the recommendations applicable to The Bahamas, and join advocates in applying pressure.

Vulnerable people are depending on us to amplify their voices and ensure they are not forgotten and are not treated like collateral damage. There is no more waiting for things to get real. We are there.

THE TRIBUNE

Wednesday, March 25, 2020, PAGE 9

ROBO-HELPERS JOIN HOUSEKEEPING CREW TECHTALK

By BRIAN AROLA Mankato Free Press

MANKATO, Minn. (AP) — Hal and Dee aren’t your typical hospital workers.

They do their jobs alone, which is probably good because they’re not much for conversation.

They’re stationary, so in between jobs they need assistance to make the rounds.

They’re also robots.

Mayo Clinic Health System in Mankato brought in the two robo-helpers in February to clean patient rooms. If you’re imaging two Roombas meandering along a hospital floor, think bigger, the Mankato Free Press reported.

The robots are closer to R2-D2’s size and use a light rather than suction to clean.

After housekeeping crews do their thing, they clear the room so Hal or Dee can emit bright UV lights to kill lingering bacteria and germs.

The duo has cleaned at least 181 rooms since their first shift Feb. 11. The technology enhancements help the hospital provide a clean environment for patients, said Lindsey Benson, the health system’s regional director of environmental services.

“This just happens to be one of those added tools we can use to meet our goal, which is keeping our patients safe,” she said.

Certain germs are more resilient against traditional cleaning measures. C. diff is one of the most common, causing 223,900 infections and

12,800 deaths in 2017, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Antibiotic Resistance Threats report from 2019.

“C. diff germs are so small relative to our size that if you were the size of the state of California, a germ would be the size of a baseball home plate,” the CDC’s website states. “There’s no way you can see C. diff germs on your hands, but that doesn’t mean they’re not there.”

Hal and Dee basically hunt and zap C. diff and other pesky germs with their intense UV lights. Each device goes through three to four cycles in different parts of the rooms, taking about 25 minutes to finish.

The health system’s Fairmont facility recently received a robot as well — Serena.

Mayo Clinic in Rochester started using them in 2014, resulting in a 30% decrease in C. diff infections.

Mayo in Mankato’s environmental services team received training to use the robots.

Once the robots finish beaming the lights inside the room, an orange cone outside lights up a green button to signal the cleaning is done.

Patients won’t encounter Hal or Dee unless the machines are being wheeled from one room to the next. No one can be in the room with the robots when they whir into action— a sensor shuts off the devices when it detects motion.

“What anybody would see is just a beaming light underneath the door,” Benson said.

LINDSEY BENSON, Mayo Clinic Health System’s regional director of environmental services, stands with a cleaning robot named Hal at the health system’s Mankato hospital.

(Brian Arola/The Free Press via AP)

• WHILE other industries struggle, Liu Zhiyong says China’s virus outbreak is boosting demand for his knee-high, bright yellow robots to deliver groceries and patrol malls looking for shoppers who fail to wear masks.

Liu, CEO of ZhenRobotics Corp., is among millions of entrepreneurs who are gradually getting back to work after China declared victory over the coronavirus that shut down the world’s second-largest economy.

ZhenRobotics’ flagship model is the six-wheeled, 68-centimetre-tall (27-inchtall) RoboPony.

The self-driving cart is sold to retailers, hospitals, malls and apartment complexes.

Unlike airlines, hotels and other industries that face a long and uncertain struggle to recover, Liu said his orders have tripled since the outbreak began.

“The epidemic made people aware of the fragility of human beings,” Liu said.

“Robots can make up for this vulnerability and provide services people can trust,” he said. “Trust in robots has been enhanced dramatically.”

RACE DRIVERS USE GAMES TO STAY SHARP AS VIRUS SHUTS TRACKS

By JAMES ELLINGWORTH and JAKE SEINER AP Sports Writers

DÜSSELDORF, Germany (AP) — Le Mans winner Neel Jani won’t feel his tyres grip the road in a competitive environment for quite some time with the Formula E season suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic.

That doesn’t mean he can’t find a race worth his time. To do that, he’s been taking his auto racing skills online — and finding himself at times overmatched.

“Against the gamers, it’s a different world,” he said. “They’re incredibly quicker than all of us, all of the real racing drivers.”

Pros from Formula One, NASCAR and other leading series are using race simulators to stay sharp and entertain fans with their seasons postponed by the outbreak.

Since the season-opening Australian Grand Prix was called off last weekend, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen has been racing online, as has McLaren’s Lando Norris. F1, NASCAR and INDYCAR have had drivers sign up to take part in virtual races in place of real ones, and sports networks with time slots to fill are saying they’ll air them.

“It’s good just to keep you in the groove from a mental, psychological aspect,” Jani, who raced against Verstappen on Sunday, told The Associated Press.

Jani was using a borrowed simulator at a friend’s house and has ordered his own simulator, but doesn’t know when it will arrive amid restrictions in Switzerland due to the virus.

Jani says it’s good for training “pure racecraft,” particularly overtaking, although there’s nothing like wrestling a real race car around a track.

“Being quick in a real car and

F1 driver Max Verstappen of The Netherlands drives his car earlier this month. With their season suspended, race drivers have been pitting themselves against gamers online. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)

Against the gamers, it’s a different world They’re incredibly quicker than all of us, all of the real racing drivers.”

Le Mans winner Neel Jani being quick in a sim, there are still different aspects coming into play.

In the real cars, first of all, you need the physical condition to be able to do it, so you need to have physically to train and all these things,” he said.

“With all the speed and all the G-forces, you have to still be able to have the guts to do it, to take this corner flat because you know if you don’t make it, you’re going to hit and it’s going to hurt. While in the sim, you say: ‘This lap I try, and if it doesn’t work, next lap I try differently.’”

Sim racing allows fans to watch drivers who wouldn’t normally race each other. So far, Verstappen has taken on gamers, but also Indy 500 winners Juan Pablo Montoya and Simon Pagenaud.

Drivers aren’t the only athletes using technology to stop their skills from decaying while in self-isolation.

The 2018 Tour de France-winning rider Geraint Thomas is one of a number of cyclists moving online to give indoor workouts more purpose.

He’s been using the Zwift platform to turn a ride on an exercise bike

into a group race through computergenerated scenery in the fictional nation of Watopia.

Some PGA Tour players already have simulators in their homes and can use them as part of normal practice to check the launch angle, ball speed and other measurements relevant to the swing. Full Swing Golf is one of the largest companies and supplies Tiger Woods, Jordan Spieth, Jason Day and Gary Woodland.

Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas and Rickie Fowler even spent time this week by using a simulator to compare left-handed swings.

But perhaps no sport is better positioned to turn simulations into a fan-friendly experience than auto racing.

Two postponed races will be held virtually on Sunday — F1s Bahrain Grand Prix and NASCAR’s event at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

INDYCAR will launch its own series the following weekend.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kyle Busch and more than 30 other NASCAR pros have signed on to race in the multi-week eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series that begins Sunday on the virtual Miami track.

That race will be broadcast live on FS1, with NASCAR commentators Jeff Gordon, Mike Joy and Larry McReynolds on the call.

“We’re basically the only sport in the world where your competitors are going to go out there and put on a show for the fans,” said NASCAR Cup Series driver Clint Bowyer, who will compete and provide in-race commentary.

The 40-year-old Bowyer told The Associated Press he’s been on the iRacing game with other drivers constantly since the pandemic forced him to hunker down at home. He said a group including him, Earnhardt, country musician Tim Dugger and other pros have run virtual races until 2:30 a.m. some nights.

“It felt like I was in the garage area,” Bowyer said. “Everybody that I work with on any given weekend was all sitting there in this thing.”

It’s not clear how much Sunday’s race will help drivers stay sharp, but it’s undoubtedly keeping them competitive. Bowyer said some have gone to extremes to perfect their race stations and are even studying in-game data to maximise performance.

Bowyer expects the 45-year-old Earnhardt will surprise fans with how adept he is, but probably one of the younger pros will take the checkered flag.

“Nobody can leave their houses, there ain’t nothing to do,” Bowyer said. “Some of them don’t have wives and kids. Those are the ones who are going to win. Look for that guy.”

PAGE 10, Wednesday, March 25, 2020

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Wednesday, March 25, 2020, PAGE 11

SECTION A

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 2020

Olympics postponed

By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

I

t’s official now.

The 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the world’s biggest sporting spectacle, has finally been postponed until 2021 because of the spread of the coronavirus pandemic around the world and the significant impact it was having on global athletes’ preparation for the multi-sporting event.

In a joint statement yesterday, the International Olympic Committee and the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee finally announced the postponement of the Olympics, which was scheduled for July 24 to August 9 in Tokyo.

IOC President Thomas Bach and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, accompanied by various dignitaries of the host country, agreed that the Olympic Games in Tokyo could stand as a beacon of hope to the world during these troubled times and that the Olympic flames could become the light at the end of the tunnel in which the world finds itself at present.

Therefore, it was agreed that the Olympic flame will stay in Japan. It was also agreed that the Games will keep the name Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020.

The Olympics would be the latest – and, by far, most significant – sporting event to be impacted by the coronavirus, which was first identified in Wuhan, China, in December.

Also known as COVID19, the virus rapidly spread throughout China and across the world in subsequent months, infecting hundreds of thousands of people and causing substantial disruptions to daily life in numerous countries.

This would the first time the Olympics have been suspended, though they have been cancelled previously during periods of war.

The 1916 Summer Games were cancelled because of World War I, as were the

A MAN is seen through the Olympic rings in front of the New National Stadium in Tokyo yesterday.

Summer and Winter Games in 1940 and 1944, due to World War II. Boycotts also caused serious complications for the Games in 1976, 1980 and 1984. But in each case, the event itself went on as scheduled.

Bahamas Olympic Committee President Rommel ‘Fish’ Knowles said it is an imminent decision that he hopes the athletes will understand was made with their well-being paramount.

Knowles said although there were just six athletes who have qualified so far, the BOC and its first female chef de mission Cora Hepburn was working to prepare a team that would represent the Bahamas as best as they could under the circumstances they were faced with if the games had proceeded as planned.

But he said they were also prepared for the worst case scenario, having the games either postponed or cancelled.

“If I could describe how we feel right now, the word

would be relief,” Knowles said. “Athletes from around the world now have a clear and better understanding about these games. With social distancing, it became very difficult for them to train.

“As you are aware, a number of qualifying meets had to be postponed and training centres closed down, so it became very difficult for the athlete to train in a proper and conducive environment to bring out their peak performance.

“So the announcement today, I can assure you, is a relief. Now some more begin. We must now speak with the IOC about the Olympic scholarship to see if they will be extended. We will speak with the Government of the Bahamas about the athletes’ subvention, the federations’ grants, how best they can be administered in the best interest of keeping our athletes on the cutting edge and ready for the Olympic Games 2021.”

In the past three months since Covid-19 broke onto

the international scene, Knowles said Bahamian athletes were in limbo like athletes around the world about whether or not the Olympics would be postponed or go on as planned.

“At no time, the Bahamas Olympic Committee doubted our president Thomas Bach, on the course of action that would be in the best interest of the Olympic Movement,” Knowles stated.

“We were satisfied that at the appropriate time, he along with the executive board, along with the president and the good people of Tokyo, would have made the right decision for these Games.

“I wish to thank personally, the president of Tokyo, the president of the National Olympic committee of Japan and others for the fine work they have been doing in hosting what I believe will be perhaps one of the best Olympic Games in our history. Technology wise, they have surpassed every expectation.”

At present, Knowles said the BOC could not put a dollar figure on the exact budget for the games as they were waiting on the IOC’s decision. He noted that they held back on purchasing tickets and hotel rooms in Tokyo, so they would not have expended any significant figure on the games as yet.

So far, only athletes from track and field have qualified for the Olympics. They include first time sprinter Samson Colebrooke and returning for their second or third are hurdler Pedrya Seymour, quarter-milers Shaunae Miller-Uibo and Steven Gardiner, high jumper Jamal Wilson and sprinter Tynia Gaither.

The BOC was also hoping that other athletes, relay teams, a few swimmers and at least one boxer, Carl Hield, would have qualified for the games.

However, in recent weeks, the majority of qualifying events in all sporting disciplines were called off due to the spread of the

(AP Photo/Jae C Hong) Covid-19 virus. To all of the Bahamian athletes aspiring to make Team Bahamas for Tokyo, Knowles had this message for them.

“You have a time table, a schedule and the certainty of the event, to use the time wisely to prepare for the Olympic Games of 2021,” he stressed.

“We, the Bahamas Olympic Committee, stand by your side and ready to assist you in any endeavour that we can.

Be also banded this virus is perhaps going to cause a slowdown in the economy, a recession perhaps and so we must use every prudence in the resources that we have at our disposal. Be guided accordingly.”

To their member associations and federations, Knowles also thanked them for their diligence until the decision was reached by their stakeholders in the IOC and Tokyo 2020, it was a most difficult time to endure. He said they will now work together in getting ready for Tokyo 2020 in 2021.

SPRINTER TYNIA GAITHER THRILLED OLYMPIC GAMES NOT CANCELLED

By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net TYNIA Gaither, one of the leading ladies in the Bahamian short sprints, was hoping that the 2020 Olympic Games would have still taken place in Tokyo, Japan, in July. But she’s thrilled to know that it’s just being postponed until 2021 and not cancelled.

This would have been Gaither’s second appearance at the greatest four-yearly multiple games, but the International Olympic Committee and the Japan Organising Committee jointly agreed yesterday to postpone the games due to the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

“This is scary, but I’m still in shock about everything that is happening because everything is happening so fast,” said Gaither of the virus that now has her confined to home in Houston, Texas, as of Tuesday night.

“I know decisions have to be made that is in the best interest of everybody.”

Like some of the athletes, the biggest decision that Gaither had to endure is the announcement that the

2020 Olympics have been postponed to the summer of 2021.

“I believe that if everybody was able to train properly and everything wasn’t closed down so that we could have gone out there and performed, the games could have still gone on,” said Gaither, who was looking to compete again after making her Olympic debut in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

“But I can only speak for myself because all of the gyms have been closed down for about two weeks and I couldn’t do any lifting, so it’s rough. I guess because of that, it’s probably in the best interest of all the athletes to have the games postponed.”

Under the supervision of coach Eric Francis, Gaither was working out about twice a day for the past two weeks as she was trying to catch up before things shut down. According to her, everything was going very well and she was getting in a position where she was getting back on track.

However, Gaither said she will just have to wait until the coronavirus crisis is passed before she can

SPRINTER Tynia Gaither is thrilled to know that the 2020 Olympic Games is being postponed until 2021 and not cancelled. refocus her concentration on training and eventually competing again later this year in preparation now for the 2021 Olympics.

“I was supposed to start competing overseas in May, but those meets have been pushed back to the summer.

That is what they are saying now,” Gaither said. “But for now, all I can do is just rest and wait to get back in training after this coronavirus is passed over.”

In preparation for Tokyo, Gaither did about four meets in Europe during

the indoor season in February. She had a season’s best of 7.13 seconds in the 60 metres in Poland. Her last meet was on February 19 in France.

While she’s riding it out in Houston, Gaither said they’re not too happy about staying indoors, but they all know that they have to do what is best for everybody.

She said she has to be confined to the same situation in Houston, so she’s just hoping that this will pass without any major disruption of lives.

Gaither, who just turned 27 on March 16 as she celebrated on a three-day cruise with her mother, Sabrina Johnson, didn’t advance out of the heats of the century in Rio, but she went on to make it to the semi-finals in the half-lap race in the 200m.

Since then, she went on to advance to the final of the 200m in her debut at the 2017 World Athletics’ World Outdoor Championships in London, England where she was eighth, while Shaunae Miller-Uibo got a bronze after she ended up fourth in the 400m in her bid for the 200/400m double.

In 2018 at the North American, Central American and Caribbean (NACAC) Championships in Toronto, Canada, Gaither placed sixth in the 200m. Last year, she picked up a bronze medal in the 200m at the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru.

She concluded the season in her second trip to the World Outdoor Championships in Doha, Qatar, where she got back to the final of the 200m and once again, history repeated itself as Gaither had to settle for eighth place.

Unfortunately.

MillerUibo concentrated just on the 400m where she got the silver medal.

Gaither has produced lifetime bests of 11.21 in the 100m from 2015 in Los Angeles, California and 22.61 in the 200m Fayetteville, Arkansas in 2014 during the outdoor season.

Her personal best times in indoors are set are 7.23 in the 60m in Seattle, Washington in 2015 and 23.11 in the 200m in Fayetteville.

Currently on the World Athletics’ list, Gaither is sitting at No. 37 in the world in the 100m and 11th in the 200m.

PAGE 12, Wednesday, March 25, 2020

THE TRIBUNE

Olympians face uncertainty with delay of Tokyo Games

By JAMES ELLINGWORTH and HOWARD FENDRICH AP Sports Writers WOULD-be Olympians and their coaches have gone from days and weeks of mulling one sort of uncertainty raised by the coronavirus pandemic — Are the Tokyo Games going to be held as scheduled? — to a whole other set of questions now that an indefinite postponement is official.

To begin with: When, exactly, are these Summer Olympics going to be staged? All that’s known for sure as of now, based on yesterday’s announcement by the International Olympic Committee and local organisers, is that instead of July 24 to August 9, 2020, they will be sometime — any time at all — in 2021 (although, oddly enough, they’re still going to be known as the 2020 Games).

What will the qualifying rules be? Some sports already finished that process. Others are in a total state of flux.

Will the delay force athletes to contemplate abandoning the Olympics altogether, because retirement beckons? And, if so, what will they decide?

“More than anything, it pushes back what life was going to offer,” said Cat Osterman, who turns 37 next month and is the oldest player on the US softball team.

“My husband and I have talked about the possibility of having a kid after July of 2020,” said Osterman, a pitcher who is one of two holdovers from the team that collected a silver medal at the 2008 Olympics, “and now that has to go into effect after 2021.”

Or as Belgian cyclist Greg Van Avermaet, the 2016 Olympic road race champion who turns 34 in May, put it: “The postponement means I will be another year older, which isn’t ideal, but I know I will be as motivated as ever.”

American fencer Kat Holmes was an Olympian four years ago and was on her way to earning a spot this time, with an eye on starting medical school in New York in the fall. She had everything lined up, too: Holmes was going to catch a flight from Japan to Newark Airport right after the closing ceremony so she could make it to her first day of school orientation.

Now everything becomes more complicated, including the prospect of missing a bunch of class time if the Tokyo Olympics are shifted to May 2021, for example.

“I have to postpone the rest of my life for a year and kind of confront what the rest of a qualification means. We don’t know,” Holmes told The Associated Press.

“I didn’t come this far not to give 100 per cent at the Olympics. ... And it’s kind of the same thing with med school,” she said. “I finally got into med school just like two or three weeks ago. It seems like a decade ago.”

US swimmer Allison Schmitt is someone else who might need to reconsider her plans.

Schmitt — who owns eight medals, including four golds — has dealt with depression and left her sport for two years after the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.

But she returned to training under coach Bob Bowman in hopes of making her fourth Olympic team this year.

TWO men walk past a large banner promoting the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in Tokyo yesterday.

(AP Photo/Jae C Hong) She’ll turn 30 in June and told the AP that it’s too soon to make a definitive choice.

“I know that our goals have not changed just because the date of the Olympics has changed,” Schmitt said. “Yes, this is time filled with emotion.

I don’t think it would be smart to make an immediate decision with these emotions.”

To be sure, there also are those who could benefit from the delay, because it offers extra months to let injuries heal.

Basketball stars Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving come to mind (so long as the rescheduling doesn’t conflict with the NBA season, of course), as do such reigning Olympic champions as

South African 400-metre runner Wayde van Niekerk and British tennis player Andy Murray.

Others have financial concerns.

Baseball is returning to the Olympics for the first time since 2008, and former New York Mets minor leaguer Jeremy Wolf was set to play outfield for Israel. Now the 26-year-old Wolf will try to get a nonbaseball job this summer and has no idea if he will be able to play in 2021.

“It changes a lot of things for a lot of guys,” Wolf said in a text message to the AP. “Who can still play, who can afford it (’cause we’re not being paid), who will still be in game shape? A year-and-a-half is an eternity in baseball time.”

The overwhelming initial sentiments yesterday seemed to be a mix of disappointment and understanding — even among former athletes.

“My first thought was I was relieved. Now there’s more of a chance that we can beat this and can do what we need to do to save as many lives as possible,” said Michael Phelps, the retired swimmer who collected a record 23 golds.

“I was happy to see them logically making a smart decision. It’s just frustrating it took this long.”

Three-time beach volleyball gold medallist Kerri Walsh Jennings called the postponement the “responsible choice.”

“Can you imagine making this decision after

how many years and how much blood and sweat on a global level? People are having a problem calling off weddings, and calling off little tournaments, so imagine with all the billions of dollars that’s gone into this,” Jennings told the AP. A little more than half of the qualifying spots for Tokyo had been determined before the COVID-19 outbreak began affecting sporting events large and small around the globe, so sports federations will need to make adjustments.

Entire countries are now on lockdown, more than 400,000 people worldwide have been infected and more than 18,000 have died, according to a running count kept by Johns Hopkins University.

“There is no need to host the Olympics at this time and have athletes sick and dying,” said Julius Yego, a silver medalist in the javelin for Kenya four years ago.

The IOC and Japan still have work ahead to pull off a well-organised and safe Summer Games in the unprecedented circumstances of a postponed Olympics (they’ve been cancelled during wartime in 1916, 1940 and 1944).

Competitors are dealing with the new ground, too, right along with everyone else.

“Many have both a sense of relief and of grief,” US women’s volleyball coach Karch Kiraly said about athletes’ reactions to the postponement. “Tons of unknowns. We will of course reset, re-engage, and figure out things one day at a time,” Kiraly, the only person to win Olympic gold in beach and indoor volleyball, wrote in an email to the AP. “What other choice do we have?”

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Wednesday, March 25, 2020, PAGE 13

Olympic fallout: postponement will upend other major events

By PAUL NEWBERRY AP National Writer THE expected yet stunning decision yesterday to postpone the 2020 Summer Olympics because of the coronavirus could have a ripple affect on other major events, most notably the world championships for track and swimming.

While the International Olympic Committee has yet to set a new date for the Tokyo Games other than “not later than summer 2021,” the revised calendar undoubtedly will heavily impact two of the event’s biggest sports.

The 2021 world athletics championships are scheduled for next summer in Eugene, Oregon, which is constructing a new stadium that will seat 30,000 on the site of historic Hayward Field. The next world aquatics championships are set for roughly the same time in Fukuoka, Japan.

Paul Doyle, one of track and field’s most influential agents, believes the track worlds should be postponed until the summer of 2022, in the midst of what is essentially an off year for the sport.

“That makes the most sense,” he said. “No global championships in 2022, so if we move it to 2022 that solves a lot of problems. If you put them in the same year, it’s not just having Olympics and worlds the same year. How do you select the teams?”

This will be the first time the every-two-years event has been held in the United States. Now, it’s all about the timing.

The track worlds are scheduled for August 6-15, which obviously won’t work if the Tokyo Olympics are pushed back a full year to roughly the same

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spot on the calendar as this year’s games — July 24 to August 9.

If the Olympics are held in April or May, an idea that seems to be under serious consideration, the track worlds could press forward with their plans.

Even so, Doyle said it would be better to delay the world championships to 2022.

“I don’t think putting them in the same year makes a lot of sense, especially when really 2022, it should be relatively easy,” he said. “I don’t know all the intricacies of the city of Eugene. I would imagine that having a little more time might be good.”

Swimming also holds its biggest event outside the Olympics in odd-numbered years.

The 2021 aquatics championships — which in addition to swimming also include diving, water polo, artistic swimming, openwater swimming and the non-Olympic sport of high diving — are set for July 16 to August 1 in Fukuoka, which is about 675 miles (1,088 kilometres) southwest of Tokyo on the island of Kyushu.

Again, that timing won’t work if the Olympics are shifted to the summer of 2021.

But Cornel Marculescu, the executive director of world governing body FINA, said there is no chance of the next worlds being bumped back to 2022.

“No, no, no, no, no, no,” he defiantly told The Associated Press by phone.

Marculescu said the IOC is considering two options for the Summer Games, which will have a direct impact on FINA’s next move. “If they do it in summer, then we (will have

USA BASKETBALL’S NEXT MOVE HINGES ON NEW OLYMPIC SCHEDULE

By TIM REYNOLDS AP Basketball Writer

A TAXI passes a large banner promoting the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in Tokyo yesterday.

(AP Photo/Jae C Hong) to change) the dates (of the world championships),” he said.

“If they do it at the beginning of the year, maybe we don’t need to touch the dates. The only thing we do, we wait to see what is the IOC decision.”

If the IOC goes with a summer date, FINA would have to decide whether to hold its world championships before or after the Olympics.

A fall date seems most likely, since it wouldn’t conflict with the US Olympic swimming trials that are usually held about a month ahead of the games.

“Before or after?” Marculescu asked rhetorically.

“I don’t know.”

The other member of the Olympics’ Big Three is gymnastics, which stages its world championships every non-Olympic year.

The 2021 event is set for Copenhagen, Denmark, but not until October 18-24, so it shouldn’t be directly affected by the Olympic postponement.

Training schedules and other competitions would have to be altered, however.

The world governing body said it will do “everything necessary to adapt its events calendar to fit the new dates” of the Olympics.

Swimming coach Bob Bowman, best known for his work with retired

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Olympic great Michael Phelps, said he’s looking forward to the chance to prepare for the Olympics without a major event the year before.

In addition to the everyother-year worlds, the Pan Pacific Championships are held two years ahead of the Olympics.

“It will be nice to have a low-key summer for the first time ever,” Bowman said.

“We can just kind of get into it without preparing for a major event, like worlds or Pan Pacs. It seems like there’s always something coming up. Not having that will give us a real leg up on the preparation time they need.”

USA Basketball is hoping that the rescheduled Tokyo Olympics will be held around the same time next year as they would have been this year.

Otherwise, an alreadycomplicated situation could get even tougher for coaches and players.

USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo said yesterday that he has “hit the pause button” on planning for the next Olympics. Colangelo noted that there’s nothing now to do besides waiting to see exactly when the games in Tokyo will be held in 2021 — and if the new schedule will conflict with the NBA schedule.

“It’s pretty simple, isn’t it? We either have NBA players or we don’t,” Colangelo told The Associated Press. “And if we don’t, we’ll look at the other options.”

For now, Colangelo is committed to remain in his role through 2021. So is the coaching staff; US coach Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs is the head coach, with assistants Steve Kerr of the Golden State Warriors, Lloyd Pierce of the Atlanta Hawks and Jay Wright of Villanova.

But again, that’s all schedule permitting.

USA Basketball was planning to pick the 12-man roster for the Tokyo Olympics in June. There were 44 players under consideration. “These are unusual times,” Colangelo said.

“And when they ring the bell, we’ll get ourselves ready.”

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A VIRUS RAGES, A FLAME GOES OUT: OLYMPIC GAMES RESET FOR 2021

By EDDIE PELLS AP National Writer NOT even the Summer Olympics could withstand the force of the coronavirus. After weeks of hedging, the IOC took the unprecedented step of postponing the world’s biggest sporting event, a global extravaganza that’s been cemented into the calendar for more than a century.

The Tokyo Games, slated for 11,000 athletes from more than 200 countries and at a reported cost of $28 billion, had been scheduled to start July 24. They will now be pushed into 2021 on dates to be determined.

They will still be called the 2020 Olympics — a symbolic gesture that the International Olympic Committee hopes will allow the games to “stand as a beacon of hope.”

“I don’t think anybody was really prepared for this virus happening,” said American sprinter Noah Lyles, primed to be one of the world’s breakout stars in Tokyo. “You look over the history of the Olympics and see that it’s usually war that’s stopped the Olympics from happening.”

Only World War I and World War II have forced the Olympics to be cancelled; they were scrubbed in 1916, 1940 and 1944.

Now, a microscopic virus that is wreaking havoc with daily life around the planet, to say nothing of its sports schedule, has accomplished what no other virus (Zika in 2016), act of terrorism (the killing of Israelis in Munich in 1972), boycott (1980 and 1984), threat of war (frequent) or even actual world war has managed to do: postpone the games

and push them into an oddnumbered year.

Four-time Olympic hockey champion Hayley Wickenheiser, the first IOC member to criticise the body’s long-held, dug-in refusal to change the dates, called the postponement the “message athletes deserved to hear.”

“To all the athletes: take a breath, regroup, take care of yourself and your families. Your time will come,” she wrote on Twitter.

When will that time be?

Nobody knows yet. It was a big part of the reason the IOC refused to announce a postponement that was becoming more inevitable with each passing day.

Major sports organizations, including World Athletics and the gymnastics, track and swimming federations in the United States, were calling for a delay. So were major countries, including Canada, Brazil and Australia.

Even more compellingly, athletes were raising their voices. They were speaking to the unfairness of not being able to train, fearful that a trip out of the house could put them, or someone in their hometown, in jeopardy. And what of their competitors, some living halfway around the world, who might not have as many restrictions, and could be getting a leg up?

There were fears about the eroding anti-doping protocols caused by virus-related restrictions and qualifying procedures that were disintegrating before their eyes.

“A bittersweet victory for athletes,” one group, Global Athlete, called the decision. “On one hand, their Olympic dreams have been put on hold. On the

JAPAN’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe talks to journalists in front of the prime minister’s residence in Tokyo yesterday.

(Charly Triballeau/Pool Photo via AP) other hand, athletes have shown their power when they work together as a collective.”

With IOC President Thomas Bach guiding the decision, the committee had said as recently as Sunday that it might take up to four weeks for an announcement to come.

It took two days.

But make no mistake, there are still weeks of difficult planning ahead.

Many of Tokyo’s arenas, stadiums and hotels are under contract for a games held from July 24 to August 9. Remaking those arrangements is doable, but will come at a cost.

There are also considerations beyond the top-line

price tag. Among them: The $1 billion-plus the IOC was to receive from broadcast partner NBC; the millions in smaller athlete endorsement contracts that are now in limbo; the budgets of the individual national Olympic committees; the availability of the 80,000 volunteers who signed up to help.

“People are having a problem calling off weddings, and calling off little tournaments, so imagine with all the billions of dollars that’s gone into this,” five-time Olympian Kerri Walsh Jennings told The Associated Press. “They have a grieving process to go through. They have so many moving parts to think about.”

There’s also the matter of the international sports schedule. Nearly all 33 sports on the Olympic program have key events, including world championships, on the docket for 2021. Famous Hayward Field at the University of Oregon was rebuilt and expanded at the cost of around $200 million to hold next year’s track and field world championships. Now that event will likely be rescheduled.

“Of course there’s going to be challenges,” said Paul Doyle, an agent who represents about 50 Olympic athletes. “At the same time, this is what had to happen.”

It came together during a meeting between Bach,

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and a handful of other executives from the IOC and Japan’s organizing committee.

Among the first casualties of the IOC’s impeccably curated timeline was the torch relay. Organizers were planning to start the journey through the host country in the northeast prefecture of Fukushima on Thursday, albeit with no fans and no torchbearer.

Instead, the flame will be stored and displayed, with its next move to be determined later.

Just one of hundreds of difficult changes the IOC leaders have to make in the upcoming weeks and months.

But the most difficult decision is behind them.

The unspoken irony in it all is that when Japan was awarded the games in 2013, it came on the strength of a campaign in which it positioned itself as “the safe pair of hands.” It was a time when the world was still emerging from the Great Recession, and the Olympic movement was especially sensitive to the runaway expenses the Summer Games were incurring.

Japan, like every host before it, had trouble sticking to the budget.

Nevertheless, seven years later, and through no fault of its own — in fact, Japan is one of the countries that appears to be avoiding the worst of the coronavirus — Tokyo residents are watching their grand plans for 2020 implode.

So, onto 2021. As far as the Olympic world — and perhaps the world at large — is concerned, it can’t get here soon enough.

THE TRIBUNE

WEDNESDAY MARCH 25TH, 2020, PAGE 15

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THE TRIBUNE

INDIA ORDERS BIGGEST LOCKDOWN Associated Press

CLOCKWISE from left: Russian President Vladimir Putin, wears a protective suit on his visit to a hospital outside Moscow; Three men in Ahmedabad, India are forced to perform sit ups while holding their ears as a punishment for stepping out without valid reason during a lockdown; Exerciseing on the waterfront in Hong Kong; Undertakers carry a coffin of a person who died of COVID-19 in Leganes, Spain.

Virus deaths surge once again in US and Europe NEW YORK Associated Press CORONAVIRUS deaths and infections surged in Europe and the US yesterday, with New York warning it is about to get hit by a “bullet train.” Stocks soared as Washington lawmakers closed in on a nearly $2 trillion deal to help businesses and ordinary Americans pull through the crisis.

In New York City, one of the biggest hot spots, authorities rushed to set up thousands of hospital beds for potential victims. The number of cases is doubling every three days, threatening to swamp the city’s intensive care units in the weeks ahead, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. The state has recorded more than 200 deaths, or onethird of the US total. “One of the

forecasters said to me: ‘We were looking at a freight train coming across the country,’” the governor said. “We’re now looking at a bullet train.”

Cuomo proposed the country send thousands of ventilators to New York City — the metropolitan area needs 30,000 of them, he said — and demanded that President Donald Trump use wartime authority to force manufacturers to produce them.

“People said it’s a war. It is a war.

Then act like it’s a war!” Cuomo said.

Trump has invoked the Korean War-era Defense Production Act to deter hoarding but has been reluctant to use it to force companies to produce medical supplies. Vice President Mike Pence said on Fox News that 2,000 ventilators have

been shipped to New York and 2,000 more will be sent Wednesday.

Dr. Deborah Birx, who’s leading the US response to COVID-19, told reporters that people leaving New York City should quarantine themselves for two weeks.

In Washington, top congressional and White House officials said they expected to reach a deal soon on a package to shore up businesses and send relief checks to ordinary Americans of $1,200 per person or $3,000 for a family of four.

With Americans’ lives and livelihoods hanging in the balance, Trump said he hoped to reopen the country in less than three weeks.

“I would love to have the country opened up and just raring to go by Easter,” he said during a Fox News virtual town hall.

Later, at a briefing with reporters,

Trump said public health officials and economists were “working to develop a sophisticated plan to open the economy as soon as the time is right — based on the best science, the best modeling and the best medical research there is anywhere on earth.”

With infections in the US exceeding 50,000, including more than 690 deaths, public health experts have warned that failing to maintain social distancing would balloon infections to the point the health care system would be overwhelmed and many more people would die.

Los Angeles County reported what might be the first confirmed US.death of a child from coronavirus. County public health director Barbara Ferrer says it’s a “devastating reminder that COVID-19 infects people of all ages.”

INDIA, with 1.3 billion people, yesterday ordered the biggest lockdown in the world. Just when it looked as if Italy might have turned the corner, officials reported a jump in new cases and deaths. And Spain had so many corpses it commandeered an ice rink to store them.

• More than 400,000 people worldwide have been infected and over 18,000 have died, according to a running count kept by Johns Hopkins University.

• The International Olympic Committee announced a first-of-itskind postponement of the Summer Olympics that were to have been held in Tokyo, bowing to the realities of a coronavirus pandemic that is shutting down daily life around the globe and making plans for a massive worldwide gathering a virtual impossibility.

• Hospitals are looking to test a century-old treatment used to fight off flu and measles outbreaks in the days before vaccines: using blood donated from patients who have recovered.

• Some experts don’t rule out a downturn in the United States that rivals the magnitude of the 1930s Depression.

• Chinese authorities plan to end a two-month lockdown of most of coronavirus-hit Hubei province at midnight, as domestic cases of what has become a global pandemic subside.

The city of Wuhan, where the virus was first detected in December, is to remain locked down until April 8.

• Confusion rippled through Britain a day after a three-week halt to all nonessential activity was imposed. Streets were empty but some subways were full. Hairdressers were closed but construction sites were open.