By Caribbean News Global contributor
CASTRIES, St Lucia – Announcing further adjustments to COVID-19 Friday, November 5, 2021, minister for health, wellness and elderly affairs, Moses Jn Baptiste, said: “While noting an increase in the number of vaccinations, Cabinet is concerned that our vaccination rate is way behind that of other Caribbean countries. This means that Saint Lucia is in a significantly weaker competitive position compared to these countries. The optics of this situation is also of concern to institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), among others.”
This revelation is striking knowing Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are struggling on many fronts, and Saint Lucia is no exception, with a struggling economy, still considered ‘broke’ and hardly able to project confidence on balance of payments and day-to-day financial obligations.
This circumstance is not unexpected for a new government into its fourth month in office, with many of the same civil servants, government advisors, financial and operational structures, still controlled by operatives of ill-defined intentions.
As of November 5, 2021, Saint Lucia recorded a total of 42,622 fully vaccinated and 9,242 partially vaccinated while 509 have received their booster shot. Additionally, the total number of cases diagnosed is 12,688 and 307 active cases in-country.
“We should all be concerned that our actions and inactions do not lead to a 5th wave after the festive season,” the health minister explained: “If that should happen, cwapo will smoke our pipes,” said minister Jn Baptiste.
In a recent article, ‘St Lucia continues to struggle with COVID-19 spikes’ Dr Belmar-George forecasts average resolution of the fourth wave by November 2021, barring any major increases in risks for new transmission,” the GIS report stated.
Acknowledging the need for further adjustments to COVID-19 on Friday, health minister Jn Baptiste, advised:
“The policies they have put in place aim at achieving a delicate balance between personal rights and freedoms on one hand and lives and livelihoods on the other. Governments sometimes get things wrong, when this has happened, some have acknowledged their mistakes and adjusted their policies in the hope that these new policies will work.”
“Our tracking data has consistently told us that high-risk behaviour by a small, but statistically significant number of our people, happens on Friday nights and Sunday afternoons even during confinement periods. Despite their best efforts, the police have not been able to fully enforce the protocols, because they are too few and too over-burned.”
Health minister Jn Baptiste permeable to the new measures continued:
“[…] To remove any perception of one set of standards for cruise visitors and another for Saint Lucians, the Cabinet of ministers acting on the recommendations of the COVID -19 management centre has decided to introduce a 5 p.m. start time for home confinement on Sundays, effective 7 November 2021 through to December 2. This change will also be applied to the time when cruise visitors return to their ships. This change is being introduced with the condition that the sale of alcohol on beaches and public places will not be allowed.”
A request for comment on the further adjustments to COVID-19 protocols from a medical practitioner on island noted:
“The almost weekly variations to COVID-19 protocols and policy application is comparable to the game of musical chairs. In other words, it lacks consistency, thoughtful management and planning.”
Another comment from a source in the region noted:
“The COVID-19 Management Centre and the advice/application of the science (to the government) is seemingly vague, notwithstanding the module of curious communication is null, still controlled by operatives of a previous ill-defined administration.”
And interestingly, the minister for health explained:
“The police have not been able to fully enforce the protocols, because they are too few and too over-burned. There are those among us who willingly take the risk that they will not be caught by the police when they ought to be more afraid that they may catch and spread the virus to their families and loved ones.”
Saint Lucia and many Caribbean islands share an over-dependence on tourism, the strongest pillar of the economy. The marketplace of Europe, UK, Germany, US and Canada dominates tourism arrivals. Added to this mix is Cruise tourism, eager to decent on destinations, as advertised, only to find the experience disappointing.
However, despite ‘apologies of ones own medicine’ and the hassle for tourism greenback, absent debt refinancing, concessionary finance and debt forgiveness, many island states will be forced to the safety of the IMF and World Bank, short of filing chapter 11/ bankruptcy proceedings. Meantime, climate change and 1.5 to stay alive is an arduous undertaking.
Saint Lucia’s COVID-19 has subsided, for now, relative to samples; (positive cases makes up 8 percent of all the samples processed on Thursday, November 4, 2021 from a total of 187 samples, which were collected between November 3 and November 4, 2021.)
Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge, World Health Organisation (WHO) regional director for Europe, in a recent statement, advised:
“Every single country in Europe and Central Asia is facing a real threat of COVID-19 resurgence, or already fighting it. The current pace of transmission across the 53 countries of the World Health Organization (WHO) European region is of grave concern. COVID-19 cases are once again approaching record levels, with the more transmissible Delta variant continuing to dominate transmission across Europe and Central Asia.”
Europe and central Asia again at the epicentre of the pandemic
