Vendors willing to work with new COVID curfews

Understanding and acceptance are the words that best describe how vendors in downtown Kingston feel about the new COVID-19 measures.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness on Monday announced that the new curfew hours will be from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. from Mondays to Saturdays, and 3 p.m. to 5 a.m. on Sundays and public holidays.

"I feel is a good thing because the youth them nowadays nah really whole order you know. A them 'cause it fi bruk out suh 'cause them a keep baay party," said one man selling his wares on Barry Street in downtown Kingston yesterday.

"The Government do a good thing. Cut it back, shoulda cut it lower too. I see it a go bad fi business but Jah will provide yuh know."

A sky juice salesman on the same street told THE STAR that he is willing to work within the guidelines that Holness has set.

"We haffi just gwaan work wid it. A suh the thing set up, we cyah fight the thing," he said. "We did inna it already, whether it is 8 o'clock or 3 o'clock. It did reach up there already suh 'til it come back down, so we affi just gwaan work wid it same way."

Taxi drivers, however, are singing a different tune. One cabbie, who operates under the hackney carriage designation, said the curfews are ruining his livelihood. While vendors said they would have already locked up for the day by the time the new curfew hours begin, this cabbie said those are the hours he would make the most money carrying home people from work.

"It is good for some people and it is not good for some people. It good for the business sector but it not good for all people like me weh run a taxi," he told THE STAR. "We haffi follow protocol or else a consequence so we a go follow it, enuh, but we affi come off a road too early fi even make real food pon the road."

The cabbie said that he does not think that these measures are at all helpful in the fight to end the pandemic.

"Weh dem a do nah guh stop it and nah guh prevent it from spread. Mi nuh know wah guh stop it, only God, Fada God, and stick to the routes and do weh we know we affi do," he said.