Residents allowed to shop via surnames for next 3 days
Further, only one person per household will be allowed to go out and which day they are allowed to access essential items and services would be dependent on their surnames.
This was announced by Premier and Minister of Finance, Honourable Andrew A. Fahie (R1) during a live COVID-19 Update on the Government of the Virgin Islands Facebook page moments ago, Wednesday, April 1, 2020.
Shopping by surnames
According to Premier Fahie, starting from Thursday, April 2, 2020 persons with surnames beginning with A to I will be allowed out from 8:00am to 6:00pm tomorrow, Thursday.
Persons with surnames ranging from J to R will be allowed their turn to stock up and access other essential services on Friday April 3, 2020 between 8:00am and 6:00pm.
Finally, persons with surnames ranging from S to Z will get their opportunity out on Saturday April 4, 2020 during 8:00am and 6:00pm.
It was noted; however, that on the three days, 6:00am to 8:00am will be reserved for essential workers and persons shopping for vulnerable persons who are not allowed out.
Persons on quarantine are also not allowed out during the 3-day shopping period; however, their needs will be addressed through the Client Support Centre.
According to Premier Fahie, the move to stagger the shopping by surnames is to prevent a buildup of crowds at places of business.
The essential services or persons allowed to operate would be supermarkets and mini-markets, pharmacies, gas stations, banks, private medical facilities, fisherfolks, farmers, bakers, office supplies stores, money transfer services and hardware stores.
Shop & go straight back home- Premier Fahie
Supermarkets are also being encouraged to offer online shopping and curbside delivery.
They have also been mandated to maintain the protocol for social distancing and practice sanitisation.
“Persons must only leave their homes to go directly to the places of business and go back home,” Premier Fahie said, adding that there must be no congregating or visiting of anyone.
“When you are done with your business of the day go straight back home. It is for your good and our good,” Premier Fahie reiterated.
He said persons from Anegada and Jost van Dyke are encouraged to follow the last name protocol and are welcome to come to Tortola to conduct their business.
“Please shop for a minimum of 14 days,” Premier Fahie said, noting that the curfew is scheduled to be lifted at 6:00am on Thursday, April 16, 2020 in keeping with the maximum amount of time allowed for a curfew by law; however, an order for a further 3 days is likely to allow for the Territory to be on a full 14-day lockdown.
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58 Responses to “Residents allowed to shop via surnames for next 3 days”
Shoppers, please don't be selfish with your buying. Don't take more than you need for 14 days. Leave some for others.
They are a burden , heavy load and deadweight .
The road town clinic is going to be opening and how I would ascess services since my surname is Williams .
1) how will this work when my husband and I carry. different surnames and need to sign jointly at the banks, ii) would we be able then to both leave the house on the same day and time?
2) Also who will hold our toddler and 7 year old, whilst we carry out our runs as you have stated no kids permitted on grocery runs, i.e. I guess one stay in the car with the kids whilst the other go in and do the shopping
3) as time is crucial for a 14day shopping run as well as the window for being exposed somewhat runs parallel, I thought it would have been prudent to allow up to 2 persons in a household to shop, so we can be smart by covering different shops, i.e., I'd be at RTW whilst he is at OneMart or or another RTW location.
4) Since we are not allowed to visit other family members or friends. I will need to walk with my toddler and 7 year old - any suggestions on that?
5) It was a struggle the last 5 days of not being able to walk our Corso and we were forced to have here confined to her home which doesn't have the room to walk herr as she routinely gets. She's a bit more irritable and getting pudgy. She misses her morning and evening walks on the beach had to be kept on our balcony and were able to do their usual walks on the beach and another 14 days can be detrimental on her overall.
6) Lastly, I think we have been generally good with the thrash besides the odor and signt of piled rubbish, though think it was unusual to see stacks of rubbish on my neighbors balcony but with that we now have rat intrusions which were evidenced by gnawed meshes/screens and droppings - I am not sure who's to blame here as my neighbor too has the same issue. We have not seen rodents since Maria/Irma when it was a massive island wide issue and I am worried that the hoarding of thrash will bring about this. Was told to get poison but we have pets in the neighborhood and I don't want to take any chances. The are covered trash bins but some of the strays come by and tilt over the bins and that's additional work to have to go out and clean up. Therefore will like to know if something will be put in place from the sanitation/solid waste department or private companies will be given passes to ensure that something is done - our closest bin is about 10 mins by car.
Thank you!
Stay safe dont do what you want just do what they ask stay home. Point blank
What are you going to do for the next 14 days? You will go mad.
A little suggestion on how to handle your garbage to keep rodents at bay. Place anything that will decompose in a plastic bag, doublewrap properly and keep in the freezer. Been doing that and its working. Avoid having very full bags by compressing bottles, tearing boxes or packets etc into smaller pieces and so forth. Play games with you pet on the porch or walk in your yard if there's one. Don't worry, they have announced that they will be having curbside pickup of garbage.
Let's comply with the instructions given by our Government to keep each other safe and protected.
Premier need to abolish this right now
Last week not this week everyone out I. Masses then we can’t come out to throw garbage for our own health stupes this is soo upsetting next two weeks we will hear the outcome
Then again they might try hide it knowing they caused this
BVI way out on a limb here. No other country has done this.
It is not a proportionate use of emergency powers and breaches human rights.
Revisit the plan.
Would have been more inteligent (and effective in serving the purpose of preventing the contagion) to have partial lockdown during 8-10 hours daily, with supermarkets and groceries stores open durring those daytime hours. Ppl would be more at ease, no crowds in and outside supermarkets, social distancing easier to maintain and manage. Just look at what other countries did and were successful. I am affraid that the crowds and the chaos of this 3 days before the complete 2 weeks lockdown, are the conditions for the perfect storm of covid19 in Tortola. I hope I am mistaken.