I understand the urge to take the extreme option when one in confronted with the anger of a population that holds you responsible for the amount of suffering our country is going through because of COVID.

The government failed every step of the way at dealing with the pandemic
We needed a lockdown,but one that works without destroying the last remaining hope for an economic recovery.
No country in the world has shut down its manufacturing sector.
Gov in France and Italy actually reached out to manufacturers to press them to operate during lockdowns
We have reached out to our gov with a clear set of proposals to have the bare minimum of facilities operate with their supply chains.

- Food, medicine and households
- Exporting companies
- Continuous process factories.
We even provided them with a clear system to implement in order to prevent any abuse.
We proposed to have all the employees tested and then tested again after 3 weeks.
This would place our testing rate at 150% per month compared to the 5% national avg
Factories are controlled environments , inaccessible to the public, when an outbreak occurs it is immediately contained by the very nature of the facilities.

The avg occupancy in the facilities we are trying to exclude from the lockdown is around 1 pers/100m2
Today I am sounding the alarm .

The supply chains are failing, keeping the critical factories open without them poses a food security threat.

If the poultry manufacturers are out of packaging material they can no longer deliver
If the medicine manufacturers no longer have boxes they cannot ship.

If the agriculture is lacking packaging they can no longer supply the market.

We are moving fast towards that situation.
The country already stands to lose around 350 mn $ of export revenues.
Has anyone figured out the impact of those on the exchange rate ?
Has anyone thought that manufacturers are bound by export contracts and will have to pay steep penalties, and lose the market altogether ?
Can someone explain how it is fine for restaurants, supermarkets, bakeries and pharmacies to open and deliver while manufacturers can't ?
What are factories if not a facility that just does deliveries with no interaction with the public ?
In times of crisis we need clear headed leadership, taking decisions based on scientific evidence not just populism.

We cannot take the risk of keeping those facilities closed, the risk of critical item shortages.

It is time for the gov to reconsider before it is too late
You can follow @PaulAbiNasr.
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