Come next Wednesday, February 3, mask wearing in Barbados will be mandatory except for those who cannot wear a face covering as a result of a physical condition or other special circumstances.
Attorney General Dale Marshall made this position clear yesterday, during a COVID-19 update press conference at Ilaro Court.
He revealed that yesterday, the COVID-19 Monitoring Unit had to “do a clean-up of Fairchild Street simply because of the large number of people who were gathered in that district and liming, socialising, buying drinks, waiting until transportation came to get home and not wearing masks”.
Mr. Marshall continued: “This is a huge problem and therefore for the first time, we are stipulating that if you are in a public place, you must wear a mask and this is what pertains in other jurisdictions and we have been loath to come to that, but we feel that we are now at the position where it is the appropriate time to make that stipulation. So, as long as you leave your home, you are going to be required to wear a mask.”
He said persons will be exempted from the mandatory mask wearing rule in circumstances when they are unable to wear a face covering for medical reasons, travelling with a person who has to do “lip reading”, when they are eating, drinking, exercising or taking medication. Persons are also permitted to remove their masks to establish identity when entering establishments.
Mr. Marshall also reminded Barbadians that they are not allowed to visit any place of quarantine, to attend or host a party or lime and all sporting activity is prohibited.
He gave the undertaking that the details of the directive will be published on the Government Information Service’s platforms so the public would “see for yourself, what is allowed”.