Amplified music in public places has been banned with immediate effect in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Police issued a released dated today, December 31 which said that the decision was taken by the Commissioner of Police on the recommendation of the Chief Medical Officer and the Health Services Subcommittee.

“This recommendation is to allow for the required intensive contact tracing, testing and isolation/quarantining needed to contain the evolving cluster of local spread of COVID-19 cases in St Vincent and the Grenadines,” it said.

Amplified music has also been banned in private places which the public may have access to, in an effort to ensure that there are no mass gatherings at this time of ongoing local spread of COVID-19 in SVG.

All mass events scheduled to take place between Thursday, December 31, 2020 to Sunday, January 3 2021 will be postponed to the weekend of Friday, January 8, 2021 to Sunday, January 10, 2021 in the first instance.

“We acknowledge the significant inconvenience, and more, to the promoters and patrons caused by this ban and sincerely apologize for this unavoidable but necessary public health intervention,” the release said.