COVID brings overcast skies to Sunshine City
Published:Monday | March 30, 2020 | 12:19 AMDanae Hyman/Staff Reporter
COVID-19 is presenting Angella Phillips with hard lessons she has never faced before.
Phillips, the owner of the Learning Gateways Homework Centre, located in Portmore Pines Plaza, said that the islandwide shuttering of schools has hit her business hard, leaving her to ponder her next move.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness announced last week that schools would remain closed until the end of Easter as the Government maintains measures to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Educational institutions were initially ordered closed from March 13 for 14 days.
“Right now, it has been extremely slow. ... It is a homework centre that we run, so we would have had parents coming in and assisting their children with homework, but now, no one is coming in,” Phillips told The Gleaner.
“My workers are now working from home on projects. I just still come in and open my door to the public and just ensure I take the precautions I need to, but I just stay up until noon,” she added.
Learning Gateways would usually stay open until 8 p.m.
Phillips said that the slowdown is the worst she has experienced for the eight-year-old operation – a sentiment shared by many businesses across most sectors.
Finance and the Public Service Minister Dr Nigel Clarke in Gordon House highlighted a number of measures detailed in the Holness administration’s $10-billion COVID contingency package to assuage the harsh effects of the novel coronavirus pandemic on Jamaicans.
Among them was $800 million in COVID grants to support the micro, small and medium-sized businesses sector and $1.1 billion to support COVID grants for the informally employed who are affected.
GRATEFUL
Phillips said that while she believes the package being offered will not be enough to patch her fraying pockets, she is grateful for the intervention.
She disclosed that her business normally generates monthly revenue of between $200,000 and $300,000 – sometimes more – but for the last two weeks, she has taken home approximately $40,000.
Further declines, she said, might force her and her two employees to have a conversation she has been trying to avoid.
Meanwhile, a worker at a liquor store located on Port Henderson Road in Portmore said that the government-imposed restrictions on bars, which constituted the core of its clientele, had caused business to torpedo.
The shutdown of drinking parlours, nightclubs, and entertainment venues, which was initially effective for seven days starting March 18, was extended last Tuesday to April 23.
The worker, who declined to provide her name, said, however, that even though the COVID-19 bailout package might be inadequate, the business would tap those funds to mitigate against the financial fallout.
“Any small amount will help because it is really a time of crisis right now. Sales are now down more than 50 per cent since the last two weeks, and everyday sales are lower than the previous day,” the employee said.
RIDING NEW WAVE
However, other enterprises, like Portmore Cycle Centre, are picking up a second wind.
Joan Falloon, the manager, said that while sales have fluctuated since the announcement of the first COVID-19 case in Jamaica on March 10, her operation has not seen a significant decline in sales.
“I guess why I would have people still coming in is because I sell and repair bicycles. Children are at home now, so parents are repairing bicycles so that the children have something to do while they are home all day now, so we will see a little push there. However, some of my regular customers, I have not seen them,” Falloon said.
Further, she said that she has been trying to abide by the social-distancing stipulation of three feet apart. But if the order is further limited – to five or two, as has happened in other jurisdictions – she is prepared to lay off staff to maintain compliance.
Last week, Holness said that the original order that confined the assembly of persons to 20 was being revised downwards to 10. He cautioned that the measure would be strictly enforced.