Unaltered lockdown doing more harm than good as economic collapse looms
16 April 2020
The lockdown in its current form is doing more harm than good. The amendments to the lockdown regulations announced on 16 April 2020 are insufficient for the resumption of safe business operations and public well-being.
Sakeliga accepts that it is the intention of government to safeguard public health. However, we must now respectfully submit that the current approach is risking precisely that, through its acute effect on material well-being and social stability. Few additional provisions for further safe business conduct were made, while some provisions were even tightened. Even patently harmful prohibitions such as on community neighbourhood watches, regular informal food trading, and e-trade apparently remain in place. It does not have to be so.
Further economic harm with all its deleterious consequences is preventable, while maintaining the same level of public health and even improving it. This would require that we change our regulatory approach away from defining what is allowed, and rather focus on defining what is not allowed.
Sakeliga poll after regulation announcement