In the Gleaner article above Jamaica's Finance Minister seems to be getting the pieces together for reopening.
The terms of reference are going to be key. It would seem like government is expecting COVID19 to end soon although we have not bend the curve as yet. It is good that the minister is trying to provide some hope that they are doing something about getting the people back to work soon. However one big reality that is missing is that we don't really know how long this thing is going to last. 
So maybe the committee that we should put together is one to rapidly bring us up to date regarding how we as a people manage and treat COVID19 phase 1, phase 2, phase 3 and long term. Recently it was reveal that not even the hospitals are trained or have any preparation especially like isolation area, see link http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20200427/madness-hospitals-doctors-trade-blame-delivering-mother-dies-amid. No one knows how long covid19 is going to be with us so as we looking forward to open the economy we need to be ready to test test test , quickly and easily isolate.
The short term needs right now is for community education and training, Isolation and quarantine space. The training and education should let our people know that anyone of of us can and may get COVID19. If that happen we would like to be taken care of humanely. People who have been tested positive and went through isolation, quarantine and treatment are treated suspiciously by their communities. Our disaster management and community health aid services need to be tasked now. I think they exist in every parish. The company and the workers in St Catherine where most of the positive tests are found, they are treated like pariah. Addressing situations like these are where the immediate focus should be, see link http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20200421/hanging-call-centres-14-day-lockdown-curb-virus-spread. In the link above the prime minister was at pains to say how hard the decision was to shutdown BPO's. I know he is not lieing . We have not even bend our curve as yet. Reopening I would say is very risky and the finance minister task force should be tasked to first look at these risks, challenges and contingencies to mitigate them quickly.
Do we have enough test kits to test all these and other workers quickly and regularly? Will all the companies now transport all their workers to and from work to their home? An African company created a one dollar test kit, check link
, are we exploring that ? who will pay for the regular test that will be needed? If people in any other industry are tested positive are we going to lock them down? We need to know these things before we open. We also need to plan for the worst while hoping for the best.PHASE 2
We do sample random testing of some targeted communities. The authorities would determine the size of the testing . This would give us some idea of how wide spread the virus is. It would not be the best but I am basing on the possibility that we don't have enough testing kits. This would give us a reasonable idea of how much COVID19 material we needs ppe, ventilators, etc
PHASE 3
We start opening up business that would base mainly on how well we did in phase 2. By this time community sentiment should have change hopefully base on training, public awareness and the level of prepareness.
Hopefully we will be back to scenes like below soon
Here comes the irie vibes with the Marley brothers.
A country like Jamaica needs to open up fast. There are too many people who hustle outside the system and they can’t file for unemployment. I’d love to know the industry leaders involved in that task force ( I hope my teifin uncle not in it 😂 joke )
I just saw a letter for the Jamaican embassy in Japan. They have an online system to sign up and register for nationals abroad who are stuck but the wording is like it’s a gamble, once they register and book their ticket there is no guarantee they will be able to enter the island as they have a set number of quarantine facilities. So while a lot is being done, nothing seems sure with the uncertainty of the virus. Right now how I feel, cool it down till end of May and after that let nature tek it course, make all the businesses open up, people wear their mask and be cautious and adapt to the new world.
Some good points there. Testing regimes, good isolation and care provision, together with personal protection is a good scenario. The community education aspect is important, too. I understand there were similar reactions to Ebola in some places, meaning that people became very secretive and unwilling to seek help. That made it difficult to control the spread of the disease.
We have to understand that the policy of self distancing , quarantine and isolation are just to buy us some time to get our house into order so to speak and that is base on what the experts are saying.