The novel coronavirus infection number released by the Ministry of Health and Wellness yesterday has given further legitimacy to the accusation by a St Andrew businessman last week that the safety protocols are largely being ignored and the Government is not effectively enforcing them.

That the island has recorded 879 cases from 2,710 samples in the 24 hours leading up to Sunday is absolutely frightening. And with the existence of the highly contagious Delta variant here we are left to wonder how many more positive cases are yet to be detected.

Last Friday, Mr Sachel Carby, a director of Carby’s Souvenir Discount Centre and Craft Village, in response to the seven lockdown days announced by the Government, which started on Sunday this week, suggested that the move to a lockdown was basically a knee-jerk response to the problem.

Lockdown, he argued, is an emergency response. “Once there is a failure, that is when lockdowns become necessary. To avoid failure, you have to have enforcement,” he said.

His frustration with the no-movement days was even more obvious in his comments about the hit being taken by businesses from the measure.

“Business just start picking up for us, and then to have it taken away from you all of a sudden; it’s like they playing one, two, three red light. As soon as you go forward, they turn around and say, ‘I see you, so go back and start over again’,” Mr Carby said.

That exasperation is not unique to Mr Carby as we have been told by many business owners and operators — large, medium, and small — that they are simply fed up with the intermittence which now characterises their operations these days.

Last week, after Prime Minister Andrew Holness announced the no-movement days, the operator of a small restaurant told this newspaper that she was worried that those seven days of no revenue could bring her and her workers to ruin.

Just yesterday the owner of a large establishment revealed that the first three lockdown days have robbed his more than 1,200 employees of their wages for those days. When one considers that each of those employees is responsible for at least two family members the scale of the damage is significant, if not staggering.

The State’s failure to effectively enforce the safety protocols is indeed puzzling, given the Government’s declared commitment to protecting lives and livelihoods. Indeed, we recall Mr Holness stating at a virtual press briefing last September that: “I know that there have been a lot of discussions and rumours about a lockdown, but the Government’s position on this has been very clear — we want to protect lives and livelihoods. Lockdowns have a devastating effect on the economy.”

At the time he did state that “a lockdown is not off the books”, but the measure would only be implemented if there was a significant increase in COVID-19 cases.

The question, though, is why did the authorities allow it to get to the present point? Mr Holness himself, addressing the Parliament in July this year, stated: “What is driving the spread is indiscipline, complacency, and a lack of diligence in observing the protocols.”

So Mr Carby is indeed on point in his comments.

What, therefore, is the Government doing to enforce the protocols? Simply acknowledging the reason for the spread of the virus without acting is unacceptable.