BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) – The Barbados Parliament on Friday extended the COVID-19-triggered State of Public Health Emergency until June 30, but Attorney General Dale Marshall stressed that was not an indication the 24-hour curfew currently in effect would be extended for that period.

Government initially declared the Public Health Emergency on March 27.

But speaking in Parliament, Acting Prime Minister Santia Bradshaw said government was extending the measure based on the advice of the experts.

“We believe that acting on the advice of the public health officials, particularly the Ministry of Health and Wellness, that while we have done a substantial amount of work in relation to containing the virus, that we still appreciate that we are in a very fluid period at this point in time,” she said.

“And even though in the last couple days…we’ve not had a number of positive cases, I don’t want Barbadians to rest on their laurels and believe that all of the efforts of our health officials should now be dashed aside and that we should rest and be complacent in how we deal with this virus.”

After the announcement, many citizens took to social media to lament the extension, believing that it applied to the current curfew which has seen residents being required to stay at home unless going to supermarkets, hardware stores and other exempted businesses, based on an alphabetical system, or to seek medical care or go to pharmacies. That curfew is set to end on May 3.

In a statement on Friday afternoon clarifying the extension of the emergency proclamation, Attorney General Dale Marshall said that no decision has been made on extending the curfew.

“There appears to be some alarm in the minds of the Barbadian public and they seem to feel that the curfew has now been extended until the 30th of June. That is absolutely not the case,” he said.

“Under the Emergency Management Act, the State of Emergency is a two-stage process. The first stage is that the Governor-General will declare a State of Emergency and that lasts for 30 days. If it has to go beyond 30 days, then the House of Assembly has to resolve that it should be extended. The current curfew directive lasts until May 3. And this therefore means that in order for the curfew directive to be valid after April 27, we needed to go to Parliament and extend it for a period beyond that,” the Attorney General explained.

“The curfew directive that exists presently will still come to an end on the May 3. If the Government determines based on the public health advice that we need to extend that curfew or put different restrictive arrangements in place, that will be done, but those decisions have not yet been taken.”

Marshall added: “COVID is not going to go anywhere by the 30th of June. So, for as long as we have this fight in our hands, it is still going to be a State of Emergency. But throughout that period, the Government is going to employ different tools, different restrictive measures from time to time.

The Attorney General said the between now and the end of June, the government will employ measures which it believes are important and necessary to achieve the desired results.

On Thursday, 100 people were tested for COVID-19 – a daily record – and one tested positive, bringing the number of confirmed cases to 77. Six of those patients have died.