Enforcement of New Quarantine Regulations

Kareem Musa

But what about enforcement? Ensuring that businesses and government departments, or even N.G.O.s, are adhering to the regulations. Who will ultimately be responsible?

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs

“We’re going to have public health inspectors from the Ministry of Health that will do regular checks at the establishments that have frontline workers. So we are talking restaurants, the different tour operators, tour guides and all the other ministerial offices as well where we have police officers, military, doctors, nurses. So the Ministry of Health will have their public health inspectors to do these regular checks to ensure that the persons in charge of the different establishments – whether it is a head of a department or an entrepreneur, the owner of a restaurant – they will have to account and provide the information, the negative test to the public health inspectors so we can keep a tab on it. The JPs will only be responsible for going into the establishments to ensure that everybody is following the regulations; that they are actually staying at their tables – that they are with their pods so to speak that they came with – and that there is no socialising with others, there is no dancing, there is no mingling. That is going to be the role of the JPs. Of course, they will not be able to arrest anyone or charge anyone with a ticket, but in the event patrons are not following the warnings issued by a particular JP, the JP can then contact the police department to step in to issue and ticket or to charge them if it is the owner of an establishment who is allowing a social gathering to take place.”