By: Spokesman Newsroom
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (Thursday 18th November 2021) — One of the recent widely circulated cellphone recorded videos capturing sentiments of upset taxi drivers on St. Kitts caught the attention of government and COVID-19 National Task Force officials who visited Port Zante in response, as the fence bubble restriction for cruise ship passengers continues to receive push back from those who do not agree with the policy.
“Some of you might have seen a video circulating but there were some concerns raised and we went there and we engaged,” said Chairman of the COVID-19 National Task Force Abdias Samuel at the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) COVID-19 Daily Briefing held Wednesday 17th November 2021. He also shared: “We are going to take a gradual approach in taking the necessary steps in taking the fencing down.”
One video highlighted a taxi operator at Port Zante who stated: “The task force are here. We disgruntle of what’s going on — taximan not getting served and it ain’t got nothing to do with government nothing; we just want fair for everybody. Three big ships is in — normally we would run out of taxi when we have three big ships — now we are wondering.”
Samuel said he along with Superintendent Cromwell Henry and acting Prime Minister Shawn Richards went “for a sit down with them [taxi operators] and it’s important to listen because everybody makes a significant contribution and some of the concerns were genuine concerns they’ve had and we’re going to do our best to address these concerns.”
The task force chairman noted that the Tourism Authority is working to organise details of how persons including hair braiders and aloe rub vendors will be able to provide services in certain tourist attractions. He called on more persons to get vaccinated as part of a gradual process of economic recovery in the tourism sector: “We are going to take a gradual approach in taking the necessary steps in taking the fencing down. We have to prepare the general public — that means that the tourists would be able to jump in the public transportation, public buses and go to places, they’re going to be interacting with the general public to a high degree and we still have persons who are not vaccinated. Let us reach that threshold of 80 per cent vaccination.”