PHILIPSBURG— On Wednesday February 9th, during the live Council of Ministers press briefing, the Minister of Public Health, Social Development and Labor, Omar Ottley announced that if the hospitalization and active numbers continue in its current trajectory, business hours will be extended to 1 am as soon as Friday February 11th.
The Minister then stated that while we have always been at the fore front of the COVID-19 realities, we now see the rest of the world speaking of the endemic nature of the virus and they are slowly lifting their COVID-19 protocols.
Minister Ottley announced that St. Maarten is busy with their normalcy strategy and it will be scheduled to role out as soon as May 2022. “We have to come to the reality that COVID-19 is something that will be around for a very long time”. said Ottley.
The Minister notified the press that if hospitalizations remain on the downside for the rest of the week, business hours will be extended to 1 am with phase 2 (11pm) being eliminated. We are on a forward trajectory towards normalcy and cannot keep going backwards.
