Dear Sir,

These past few weeks have been extremely frustrating for the Bermuda public. Everyone has a story about false positives, unwarranted quarantine, late tests etc. In short, it is a mess.

In today’s Royal Gazette, the Premier pointed out that he is entitled to take a holiday and that is true. But is it prudent for all top government officials to take a holiday at the same time? Clearly it was bad judgment.

However, that is not the point of this letter. My issue is with the restrictions that this government has placed on all of us, it is time for them to be lifted.

Immense damage has been done to our economy, some of it was unavoidable but the rest of it is self- inflicted.

What is the point of the curfew? All it does (and did over the holiday period) is to further hurt establishments that operate late at night.

What is the point of the Safekey? It is outdated and means nothing. It is clear now that vaccination, while perhaps reducing risk, does not stop infection and a Safekey from weeks ago does not guarantee anything.

What is the point of telling people to stay home from work? It has become an excuse for poor service.

If you genuinely do not feel well then stay at home, the way you would if you had a bad cold. Staying at home for the sake of it is ridiculous. By now we should all know how to “stay safe”.

Constant reporting of ‘more cases’ distorts the issue, few people are in hospital and the death rate is almost none.

More tests are being taken, so by extension cases will appear to be higher and even if they are, is it such a cause for concern?

What is the justification for continuing to hamper our businesses and put the public through onerous and expensive testing and quarantines?

At the start of this pandemic some of these actions were justified but times have changed. It is time for us to change with them.

ALAN GAMBLE

City of Hamilton