Governor Silvestri 2020-05-20
Summary of Facebook Live Chat by Governor Silvestri at 2020-05-20 19:00
Starts at 02:45
The Spanish tramission can be found here
Travel and Repatriation
Cruise ships returning islanders:
- Thursday: Rhapsody of the Seas, a Royal Caribbean ship, arriving at 17:00
- Dropping off approximately 20 islanders from Roatan
- Stopping at Port of Cortez first to drop off 100 mainlanders
- Saturday: Carnival Glory, a Carnival ship
- Dropping off approximately 25 islanders (from all the islands)
- Monday: Oceana Serena, a Norwegian Cruise Lines ship, arriving at 07:00
Press conference on Thursday at 08:00
- Discussion about returning islanders
Airport opening dates:
- No information yet from either national or international
Flights scheduled in July:
- Too early to tell if these will actually fly
Quarantine costs:
- Hotels are charging USD 50/day for 3 meals and a place to sleep
- People who can’t afford to pay, will be subsidised
- Can’t subsidise everyone as the money can more effectively help more people in other ways
Hotel:
- Can’t disclose where they will be staying
- Have to protect these people, are seeing those in quarantine around the world being attacked
- Two hotels, neither of them is related to government officials
Inter island travel:
- Needs consulting with local authorities
Helicopters on Roatan:
- Come from a USA base
- Do patrolling and other operations
- Wednesday was just a flyover
- Chinook landed to refuel, on the ground for 12 minutes
- No people left any of the helicopters
- Medical helicopter: picked up a sick police officer
Quarantine breech:
- All the governor can say about it is it’s under investigation
Boat that entered from Mexico:
- Loaded fuel and left
International volunteers on the islands:
- Not until flights are permitted into the islands
General
Governor opinion posts:
- Can be found at the Governors Facebook Page
- Has been particularly concerned about fake news spreading.
- We have not yet had any COVID-19 cases
- Police have not come to the islands from the mainland
- Lots of anonymous Facebook pages which are posting fake news
RECO:
- Understand that there’s a problem, everyone has received very high bills
- Governor has also seen a huge power bill increase despite his businesses not running, so he’s intimately familiar with the problem
- Need a couple of days to form a plan to fix it
- If you’re going to protest, please be peaceful
- Have been in discussion with 6-7 people who are representing protestors
- Some are willing to wait, others are not, puts government in difficult situation
- Teargas is a police decision, not a government decision
- A rock hit a police officer and cracked their head
- A protestor was also injured
- Vehicles have been vandalised
- Please avoid violence
- The governor does not have any investments in RECO
Banks:
- Some banks are doing the last digit system, others are not
- All of them have promised to be off the number system by Monday
- Bank withdrawal limit?
- Please let the governor know which bank
Food:
- Please let the governor know where food is required
Projects from donations:
- Oversight committee identified that Guanaja needs priority help:
- It has priority right now as it’s remote and hasn’t gotten as much help as other places at this time.
- This doesn’t mean that Utila and other places in the Bay Islands won’t get projects in the future.
- About 35-40% of donated funds allocated
Utila Fundraising:
- Utila has a separate fund (see left sidebar)
- This fund won’t solve all of Utilas problems, the central fund still expects to help Utila as needs arise.
Santos Guardiola Closure:
- This is a join decision with authorities and mayor
- Only 9 people turned themselves in, took pressure to find the rest
- Santos Guardiola is included in the repatriation plan
Central government support:
- They did financial transfers to the mayors office
- Used for buying food and hiring medical staff
A second RADAR for the east of Roatan?
- Would need a second one
- The one on the west was donated by a person there
Treatment for COVID-19?
- There is no treatment for COVID-19 at this time
- There are some prophylactic measures which make it less severe if you get it
- More information is in Thursdays press conference
Schools:
- They’re in the works
Hospital for Bonnaca:
- That would be difficult, they’re based on population
- The hospital on Roatan will be for all the Bay Islands
- It should be much cheaper than going to the mainland
Summary of all government edicts:
- Governor agrees this is a good idea