Curfew extended, changes to exercise exemption

| 16/04/2020 | 239 Comments
Cayman News Service

(CNS): Premier Alden McLaughlin admitted on Thursday that government was giving with one hand and taking with the other when he revealed that the only changes to the curfews, which have been extended for another two weeks, relate to the exercise exemption.

Having listened to pleas about the increasing heat, he said that exercising will now be allowed from 5:15am to 6:45pm, but people can no longer drive to where they want to exercise.

He said people will now have to set out on “shanks’ mare” (by foot) or by bicycle to exercise because too many people in their cars, dressed in jeans, have been stopped by the police and claimed they were going to exercise.

The premier said that government had tried as far as possible not to tinker too much with the soft curfew regulations or the ‘shelter in place order” and this revision was confined to how people get their exercise, cutting traffic on the roads and helping police enforce the curfews.

Police Commissioner Derek Byrne said he believed that only a small number of people have breached curfew over the last month. And while crime remains stable in general, he raised concerns about some George Town burglaries and asked commercial owners to contact police so they could find ways to help them secure their premises.

The commissioner also admitted that there have been some issues with his own officers not practicing proper social distancing, handling documents and other issues, but he said that things were improving and the message had got through. He said he was reinforcing the message to officers that everyone can exercise every day except Sunday and that collecting food is also allowed every day but Sunday with no alphabetical split.

The main concern for the commissioner, resulting in the need to extend the curfews across all three islands, was that too many people are still on the road, posing a risk for spreading the virus.

See the full press briefing on CIGTV below:


Share your vote!


How do you feel after reading this?
  • Fascinated
  • Happy
  • Sad
  • Angry
  • Bored
  • Afraid
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Tags: , , , ,

Category: Local News

Comments (239)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. Anonymous says:

    Think Cayman you need to adhere to the warnings of this horrendous virus! It’s not going to go away overnight and no one, NO ONE is immune to it whatever your age. China thought they were over it and lifted restrictions and they are back to where they started again with a new wave. Including Nursing homes, the U.K. has seen 24,000 deaths to this virus!! ….and more on the way from this afternoons update. We have built temporary hospitals and have make shift refrigerated mortuaries already in place. This is due to idiots that never listen and think it will never happen to them. This is why we have lockdown!
    This is no heavy cold!!!!

    3
    3
  2. Sick and Tired says:

    It worries me that the COP is now complaining about people walking on the Boardwalk at South Sound. We cant go to the beach. We can’t drive somewhere less crowded to exercise. We only have a short window of time before it gets too hot in the mornings and when its a bit cooler in the afternoon. There are lots and lots of people living within walking distance of the boardwalk. What the hell do they expect is going to happen. Honestly, this is becoming more and more stressful. What are they going to take away next? There really isn’t much more they can take. We all need to exercise EVERY DAY for health and to deal with stress. Children are stressed too. They need to run around and play. feel like we are being restricted more and more every day. Why were the so say crowds of people not stopped and questioned by the Police? This is the same thing that happened before the beaches were closed. The Police saw this and that but no one was arrested for it. There’s nothing to stop people from talking to each other even if it is across the road. or 6 feet away from each other.

    7
    2
    • Anonymous says:

      “There really isn’t much more they can take.”??

      They can enact Mandatory vaccination laws! Depending on wich side of the barricade you are it could be good or bad news for you.

      Expert calls for making Covid-19 vaccines before they know enough about the virus..

      > Some patients with mild cases experience loss of taste and smell, or gastric discomfort, while others remain asymptomatic for the entire duration of infection.
      > The mortality rate is also widely inconsistent among every demographic
      > In some young people, the disease progresses just as quickly as it does in older people, even if the former does not have any relevant underlying conditions.

      Just like Sars-Cov-2, COVID19 is difficult to contain and understand. Rushing with vaccine could bring more harm than good.

      2
      1
  3. Anonymous says:

    8:26 pm I have the evidence, the Commissioner need to address this

    CNS please ask the Commissioner how many people were arrested for wearing jeans and thought to not be exercising- 8:26 pm this is real

    The Commissioner is not including these arrests in his daily briefings-

    4
    1
  4. Anonymous says:

    Looks like Byrne’s perfect job was to be Alden’s attack dog.
    https://www.rabble.ie/2014/02/18/silencing-the-garda-whistleblowers/

  5. Anonymous says:

    Not to burst the bubble of the hysterical people who buy the constant doomsday rhetoric and scream to « lock it down » over and over… I know many who are afraid aren’t very educated, so you buy wholesale whatever the panel is dishing out. I get why you’re afraid – they do a great job of keeping you under their thumb and trembling in fear. When you live in a country that is barely the size of a small town, I suppose you get mediocre government, if even only because the choices you gave are very limited, but stop with the fear-mongering. Anyone who understands trends, statistics and modelling knew the stats were inaccurate and the death rate was exaggerated from the start. I was shocked by the response to this virus and even started doubting myself as the media and government reacted like this was the apocalypse plague… turns out I was right all along. The Premier can keep quoting his absurd 1000 deaths projection all he wants. It doesn’t make any of it true. The information below isn’t from some tabloid news or partisan agency. This is the most respected paper on earth. Draw your own conclusions. https://www.wsj.com/articles/new-data-suggest-the-coronavirus-isnt-as-deadly-as-we-thought-11587155298?emailToken=29d5cf54a807b1444c0320794b934d2f0Y3rMrg/aePGr3Rw6agU46L2xrVQvyLvcDuevg2asGo9VT0xLlVL9jyLMV1fX4ExzvhtwyQ0aPpqB5zLV88IExOOe4SDkrFeK9+5Zj9qScjqwjPyLQ4LQxyhdbaELdbO&reflink=article_copyURL_share

    7
    3
    • Newsreader says:

      Not this earth!

    • Anonymous says:

      Agree.

      But spending a lot of time trying to convince someone that their opinion on a particular issue is wrong is as difficult as stopping a train hurtling at full speed.
      There are too many experts and opinions contradicting each other.
      There’s no such thing anymore as facts.

      Frankly, finding a harmony among people is nearly impossible today. And it is not that education plays huge role here for even among highly educated disparity in opinions is enormous.
      The other thing is that “scientific proof’ has become a mantra that replaced common sense. I won’t be surprised if soon we will be told the right, scientifically proved way to wipe our a$$es.

    • Anonymous says:

      Agree with you. But the problem is, how can you blame people for feeling otherwise when they are bombarded with reports that imply that the virus is deadly. Dr. Lee seems like a sensible guy and I don’t blame him or the Premier for the steps that have been taken thus far. The problem is that those figures are from February. Given what is now known it’s disappointing that they chose to trot them out last week instead of a month ago when they were relevant.

      I don’t think commentary here is going to convince anyone although that article was definitely worth linking to. All we can hope for is that as the consensus changes over time as to the real mortality rate of the virus, Dr Lee and the premier take note of this and start to change their thinking.

      2
      1
  6. Anonymous says:

    GOVERNMENT OVERREACH

    13
    3
  7. Anonymous says:

    The police Commissioner need to say what is the ” police dress code for exercising” there
    are officers arresting people because they are in jeans here is what they are doing placing you in hand cuffs placing you in the back of a police car taking you to the station where you are finger printed and DNA taken- the reason you are wearing jeans and we do not believe you were exercising-

    Alden please look into this and ask the Commissioner for answers-

    11
    4
    • Anonymous says:

      Stop making crap up. No one has been arrested – let alone put in cuffs – for wearing jeans. All the COPwas saying is the excuse that you going exercising whilst wearing jeans was lame and they are dealing with that by stopping people using driving to exercise as an excuse. If you say different mention one person – just one- who has been arrested for wearing jeans. Crickets.

      11
      4

Leave a Reply to Anonymous Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.