Minnis and his emergency powers do not need a reason nor to provide an explanation of anything to anyone. Thank god some of the other people that we also voted in to represent us as a government are starting to stand up to this power-drunk fool. The PM has had more than enough time to develop a strategy to wind-up "emergency powers" and take steps to return the decision making process back to a balanced and functioning parliament - so grow a backbone all you MP's or you are going to spend the rest of your political careers listening to this man mumbling phrase and doing stupid and causing the people to hate you all

All Papa Doc did was scare the sh... out of these poor islanders for the last 4 months about how they were all going to die if one drop of covid got on them. That may have seemed like a great idea back in March so that he could impress other world leaders by convincing us all to lock down - when there was barely even a threat of the virus back then. Now the government coffers are empty and they simply don't have any money left to run the country and if they borrow more they will have to start giving up the country's sovereignty to the lenders. So all there is left to do is let the tourists in. The mismanagement of this crisis will go down as the most stupid thing the FNM has ever done and I will be surprised if the organization survives the next election, let alone win it. Instead of ignoring all of the hogwash spewing out of the WHO and the mainstream media and using the lockdown to get everyone prepared for the reality of this virus coming, whether we like it or not, Papa has spent the entire time obsessing on one case here and one case there, obsessing on whether we can let more than two people go in a boat, or go to the food store on a Friday. Not one mention about getting our immune system healthy and prepared. Not one mention about recognizing who the vulnerable are (old and immune-compromised) and how we can all focus on protecting them whilst the young and healthy maintain the economy. Not one word about the truth that virus's do not magically go away one day and that we all needed to brace ourselves. Seriously - Did that so-called man of medicine really think that if we all followed his stupid instructions for three months that no one would ever catch covid 19? And these poor people that think some homemade masks are going to keep an airborne virus at bay, or keeping tourists out for another six months is going to do anything but delay the inevitable. All I can say is lets prey that the death rate is nowhere near as bad as the PM would have us believe because the government has done everything wrong to protect us in the long run

If you guys and gals think our leaders had a choice in the matter your are seriously denying reality. I have no doubt that Papa Doc has been ecstatic about the power and control he has had over us all for these last months. The only thing that would have caused Minnis to release his grip on total lockdown was the knowledge that external creditors were asking for a bigger and bigger share of the power over our economy that he elicits for himself.

As much as I like to give Papa Doc a hard time.....is too many people around here who think we actually have a choice in the matter right now. Too many people don't understand how imports and exports work, government debt, foreign exchange, etc. As predicted back in March, too much lockdown too soon has led to a complete collapse of our foreign reserves right in the middle of the drama. No foreign reserves means no food imports and no diesel to keep our electricity turned on. We now have three choices. 1) reopen our economy and prey that some crazy Americans come here in the middle of a pandemic and give us some of their US$. 2) We borrow in the middle of the biggest global crisis since WW2 which equals giving half of Andros away to loan sharks. 3) We stay hiding under our bed and prey that the lord will bring us some manna from heaven.

I am very very sorry for all you people out there who are terrified to death of this virus but 50 years of expecting Bahamian Politicians to give you something for nothing has given them nothing left to work within a crisis

Herd immunity...herd immunity......Look at New Zeland. They were all patting each other on the back last week for having no new cases and now they are are all losing their minds because as soon as they opened their borders the infections started all over again. Hopefully, we won't all die a long slow miserable death by bankrupt, crime-ridden starvation before the decision makers here get t through their thick skulls that the only way forward is through herd immunity.

If they dont stop the export of conch meat they will all be gone. I have seen warehouses full of frozen conch meat and the only people making any money are the retailers in China. They rely on poor people in the family islands to do all the work and they only get pennies per pound for it

Aren't customs and immigration supposed to be the front line of screening for covid. And they slept in on the first day on the job. That's what happens when you pay civil servants to lockdown for three months. They ain't never even want to pretend to work again. What a farce.

excellent news

It has now been pretty much proven beyond a doubt that the vast majority of people will be asymptomatic when exposed to the virus. The WHO has officially advised us that asymptomatic transmission is extremely rare. We also know that morbity rates were grossly over exaggerated and the practice of ventilating patients was far more likely to kill them than not. Isn't it about time that we recognized that the threat of this disease to the wider population is not as bad as the main stream media initially had us believe. Isnt it time that we asked why our Prime Minister chose to scare the sh.. out of us and lock us down rather than explaining to us how our own immune system is perfectly capable of protecting us (so long as we arent stuffing junk food in our pie hole all day). As a doctor, our elected leader chose to follow unscientific advice and forced us all to stick our heads in the sand for three months and the net result is that we are exactly back where we started in March. No less immune from reality. We have to be brave and confront this virus head on or we are going to perish as a sovereign nation.

There is nothing we can do about this virus until there is herd immunity. We have all wasted three months pretending this damn thing would go away if we stuck our head in the sand and we have exhausted all of our savings in the meantime. Now we have no other option but to go back to work and rely on our own immune systems to save us. Shame on all of you that thought some egotistical politicians were going to save us by bullying us around and making up stupid new rules every day. Stopping us from going to the beach for bejezus sake !? Shame on our leaders and doctors for scaring the crap out of everyone instead of educating and helping people to understand the risks and get their immune systems in the best condition possible to fight off the disease. As one writer already said, we are exactly right back where we started again. From March till now, with Covid set to re-enter the country again with the first planeload of tourists, and we are no better equipped to survive in the long run than we were in March. The failure of leadership is profound.