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