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BusinessLive writes that during the Covid-19 pandemic and response an important question from both a health and economic policy perspective has related to the number of people permitted to return to work as the lockdown was eased.
In the final regulations for Alert Level 3, which were published on 28 May, there have been significant changes to the five-level plan unveiled on 26 April. The “new” level 3 allows all economic activity to resume, except for a small set of exceptions including restaurants, theatres, personal services and leisure air travel. This has significantly increased the number of people who are permitted to work under level 3. According to the original strategy, it was calculated that 11.8-million workers would be permitted to return to work at level 3, but under the new regulations an additional 3.97-million people will be permitted to return to work. The total number of those permitted to work under the new level 3 is about 15.8-million, slightly more than would have been permitted under the original level 2 regulations, and close to the total level of employment at the end of 2019, which was 16.6-million. This marks an important strategic shift in the government’s approach. The initial approach was to restrict all activity and then allow a set of special emergency sectors to operate. The new approach is the opposite: allow everything, except for a small set of restrictions. The new regulations are likely to be easier to regulate, are more transparent, and will result in better coherence between the health and economic strategies government is following.
- Read the full original of the article in the above regard by David Francis, Kamal Ramburuth-Hurt and Imraan Valodia at BusinessLive
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