[Updating] The Government has just announced that Premier David Burt, Minister of Health Kim Wilson and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Ayoola Oyinloye will provide a Covid-19 update this evening [Dec 6] at around 8.00pm.
The island has recently experienced an increase in cases and as of this writing, Bermuda has a total of 288 confirmed Covid-19 cases to date. Due to the increase in cases, officials have recently made changes, including but not limited to, introducing fines for “persons not wearing a mask in accordance with the law,: changing the closing time for bars to midnight, and the police plan to have “officers in plain clothes” going into premises across the island.
Update 7.28pm: The Premier just tweeted that they will “give an update on our current status with Covid-19 & additional measures required to arrest the current outbreak.”
Update 9.05pm, then again at 9.30pm We will post the full statement as able, but in the meantime as a super brief summary, Premier Burt announced that “it is necessary to impose the following restrictions to contain the spread.”
Short extract from the hour long video where the Premier announces the new “restrictions to contain the spread”
He said that indoor bars and clubs will have to close starting from Tuesday, December 8th, with the Premier saying, “I do recognize there are economic consequences for businesses, and I do recognize the economic consequences for individuals, but we are going to provide the assistance which is necessary.”
The number of people allowed to gather will be reduced to a maximum of 20 people and the Premier said “no applications for large gatherings will be accepted until further notice.” In addition, he said “churches will revert back to 20% capacity.”
The measures will be in place until at least December 22nd, and the the Premier said the “goal with implementing these restrictions is certainly to reduce the spread of the coronavirus in our community.”
Update 11.41pm: In a subsequent statement, the Ministry of Health said they have “confirmed a positive case of the Covid-19 virus at CedarBridge Academy” and said, “all students, teachers, and staff of CedarBridge Academy are to be excluded from the school from Monday, 7th December, 2020 until further notice.” Details here.
Update Dec 7, 9.32am: The Government hasn’t issued formal statements as such, however, we have checked the Government website and also asked them for a list of the precise new regulations that will be in effect, and will update if able.
