Curbing virus vital: CEO

By DALE LUMA
BUSINESSES support the urgent need to stop the current spread of the Covid-19 but acknowledge that a full scale, literal lockdown isn’t possible in Papua New Guinea, says PNG Manufacturers Council chief executive officer Chey Scovell.
Scovell said this when asked if businesses were prepared to face any lockdown given the rise in Covid-19 cases.
“This depends on what you mean by ‘prepared’,” he told The National.
“Can they physically stop operating and send all staff home, yes?”
“However, manufacturers are not responsible for filling up warehouses (in stores), if we close manufacturers, shelves run empty.
“If we close shops, people can’t make any purchases.”
Scovell said PNG had insufficient capacity for home delivery services and most people lacked the ability to stock two to four weeks’ worth of supplies.
He said manufacturers had continued to provide safe work spaces for staff to protect against the Covid-19 and mitigate the risk of infection but could not enforce all safety protocols and behaviours.
“The reality is that we are now in stage three,” he said.
“Movements should already be restricted, it’s simply not being enforced at all, in any way.”
Scovell said restricting movement was necessary but not always practical as many services required workers to move around and people also needed to move.
“We support the guidelines and the restrictions under each stage,” he said.
“We would ask that rules be followed and enforced. Our manufacturers have put in place measures to comply with the rules.
“It’s outside the workplace that rules are not being followed.”
Scovell said under stage three and four, only essential workers were allowed to attend work but this was not happening.
“In my membership, they are working in rotations, working from home, have made substantial changes to their work layouts to ensure distancing,” he said.
“The Government lacks the capacity to effectively enforce the guidelines.”
He said the Government lacked adequate workers (police, health workers, teachers, etc for the country so it was unrealistic to expect the police to effectively enforce the rules.
“We each have to play our part,” he said.
“Maybe a hotline for workers and customers to report non-compliance would assist, but even then it would still be a challenge for the government to visit and penalise those that aren’t complying.”
Scovell said continuous awareness, leadership from politicians and bureaucrats and vigilance by the people was needed to manage the impact of the Covid-19 on businesses and people’s lives.