JEK
Senior Insider
SAINT-BARTH TOWARDS AN ANTICIPATED DECONFINEMENT
by V.A 04/29/2020
The President of the Collectivity pleads for a total deconfinement as of May 11, on the island. Return of all children to school, reopening of shops, including hotels and restaurants. Life could resume more quickly in Saint-Barthélemy than in the rest of France: the state is in favor of local adaptations of the national plan, particularly in island territories like ours.
Our island should, like other overseas territories, benefit from early deconfinement in relation to national guidelines. Bruno Magras is actively pleading for an early resumption of activity on the island, arguing that the virus is not circulating and the imminent implementation of a generalized screening campaign.
He presented his arguments to Annick Girardin, Minister of Overseas, last Friday; she said she was in favor of adapting deconfinement according to local particularities. The prefect of Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthélemy Sylvie Feucher is also of this opinion. In his speech to the National Assembly yesterday, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe also defended territorial adjustments: "This heterogeneous circulation of the virus creates, in fact, differences between the territories. For all those who, like me, believe in common sense, it is not unnecessary, and even very necessary, to take these differences into account in the way deconfinement should be organized. Both so as not to apply the same scheme in places where the situation is objectively not the same, but also to allow local authorities, in particular mayors and prefects, the possibility of adapting the national strategy according to circumstances. "
"It has been practically a month since we have had no Covid-19 cases in the territory," recalls Bruno Magras. “However, all the leading figures in French medicine have explained to us that the life of the virus is limited in time, to the point that the period of confinement when arriving from outside is limited to 14 days. Therefore I deduce that after a month, the virus no longer exists on our territory. Admittedly, it can be reimported, but I have not yet been informed of the date of its return ... ”Here it is, the keystone of deconfinement: the reopening of borders. The process is not yet on the agenda, although everyone is thinking about it, Bruno Magras first: "I already want a total lifting, except for the opening of borders, which should be organized with the establishment of a temperature and PCR test system for people arriving from outside, why not? "
Before that, the President of the Collectivity wishes that, at the latest on May 11, all the businesses can resume their activity, and the 1,258 pupils of the island go back to school (read also). A reopening which would include bars and restaurants, despite their continued confinement, at the national level, beyond May 11. The other big issue is that of health measures. Hairdressing, aesthetics, shops, restaurants ... Each profession works at the national level to establish rules, in collaboration with the government.
For restaurants and bars, for example, a guide to good practice will be provided to each establishment, the grinding of which has already been carried out by professionals in the sector: tables spaced at least one meter apart, reservations limited to eight people, obligation to staff to wash their hands every thirty minutes ... "We will study this guide with Muriel Pénicaud (Minister of Labor, note), it will then be necessary to give it a legal form", explained Friday morning Bruno Le Maire, Minister of Economy.
Some establishments should get away with these measures but for others, it will be more complicated: how to space tables by one meter in establishments like La Cantina, in Gustavia? How to imagine a festive evening at the Select without close contacts? More generally, how to respect social distancing in a disco, or in the theater, for example? In addition, these measures involve slow investment and / or activity. A new burden for companies, many of which are left bloodless by the health crisis. Saint-Barth should resume a more normal life from May 11. But it will not be the same as before the Covid-19.
