 Welcome to NTN Nightly, I am General Norvel, this edition's top stories. The chief medical officer renews calls for the public to vaccinate as more cases of the Delta variant are recorded in country. Preparations for the 14th annual St Lucia Taiwan partnership trade show are being finalized. And the Minister for Youth Development engages the National Youth Council. The Ministry of Health, Wellness and Elderly Affairs received notification from the Caribbean Public Health Agency of nine new cases of the Delta variant. Chief Medical Officer Dr. Sharon Burma-George has informed that all of the cases are nationals, the majority from castries and grossly. Five of them are female, four males and the ages range from 18 to 60 years. Based on contact tracing data, the majority of the cases that we are seeing right now are acquired from non-adherents to the recommended protocols. We note excessive social activity, especially on weekends, even during the curfew hours. The contact tracing team has informed of the positive cases providing false contact information with holding their place of employment and contacts. This prevents us from tracing and testing in a timely manner. The respiratory hospital also reports that many persons remain at home with respiratory signs and symptoms for extended periods and only access care at the critical stage which leads to poor outcomes. Dr. Burma-George is advising the public to access care at the respiratory clinics or respiratory hospital if and while. Signs and symptoms of concern include shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, tightness or pain to the chest, feeling weak, pale or blue colored skin, lips or nail beds. If you have chronic conditions, please get reviewed by a healthcare practitioner if you suspect that you may have COVID-19. The positive cases in home care are reminded that they are not to leave their place of isolation. They contact the home monitoring team or healthcare provider via telephone with any concerns that they may have. Family members and friends advise to deliver groceries and needs to those persons who are positive in a safe manner. By supporting each other, we'll get out of this. We continue to ask the public to work with us and exhibit responsible behavior to manage this fourth wave. Let us all take personal responsibility to keep ourselves and the family safe. On July 25, 2021 to September 26, 2021, there have been 5,703 cases at an average of 91 cases per day. During that period, 94 COVID-19 deaths were recorded with a case fatality rate of 1.6%. Females account for 53% of the deaths. The average age of the deaths is 66 years. Meanwhile, the public is being encouraged to get vaccinated against the SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The available vaccines have been proven to be safe and effective in protecting persons from developing COVID-19 in severe forms, complications, hospitalizations and death. It is against that backdrop that the OECS Commission pulled resources for a regional drive. COVID-19 vaccines are a dose of the facts, a production or a medical professional throughout members of the organization of the Eastern Caribbean states OECS speak to their country's COVID-19 situations, the effectiveness of vaccines, among other things. OECS's program director of health Dr. Avian Bamadou indicated that OECS member states have been battling waves of infections and these waves have translated into waves of severe illness, hospitalizations and deaths. Dr. Bamadou noted, however, where vaccine uptakes are high, the negative impacts of the virus are reduced. Where vaccine rates are high, severe illness, hospitalization and deaths remain relatively low even during a COVID-spiking transmission. Since the COVID-19 vaccines became available, countries are in a race to vaccinate their populations. The more developed countries have greater access to vaccines with the levels of vaccine and higher levels of vaccine acceptance. Our world in data provides interactive customized graphics which tracks the vaccination rates by country relative to population over time. Within the OECS, Anguilla is the most vaccinated of the OECS countries with approximately 60% of its population fully vaccinated. This is followed by British Virgin Islands with approximately 45% of its population fully vaccinated, next St. Kitts and Nevis with 41% of its population fully vaccinated, next Antigone-Babuda with 37%, Dominica with 29%, Montserrat 28%, Grenada 18%, St. Lucia 16% and the Grenadines 12% of their population fully vaccinated. Family physician in St Lucia, Dr. Tania de Stang-Bobre provided an insight into her experience dealing with COVID-19 positive patients. She noted that symptoms among those who were vaccinated were less severe than those who were vaccinated. The family physician also addressed the issue of breakthrough infections and its impact on the confidence of people on the vaccines. I would like to call it breakthrough infections because it sort of intimates that we didn't expect infections with the vaccine. At no point in time did anybody say that vaccines would prevent infection. No vaccine does that. We've had measles children who have been immunized with measles, Mom and Rubella come up with measles. You know, we've had children immunized with chicken pox who come against chicken pox, so we know that there are chances of infections even if you're vaccinated. However, what we know is that the vaccines, because of how they work by priming the immune system, the infections are milder, fewer complications, and the duration is usually shorter. So we are aware that the COVID vaccine will not work as well as people thought they would, but we're also seeing that the benefits are one, they are less likely to get infected, and if they do get infected, they are less likely to transmit the infection. And if they do come down with the infection, their disease progress is milder and shorter. Head of Health Promotions in Dominica, Mignan Rool Schillingford explained that Dominica has been managing a surge in cases. However, the vaccines have aided in that individuals who have been vaccinated have less severe symptoms if at all. The Head of Health Promotions in Dominica noting that some vaccination hesitancy is due to the belief that the vaccine may not have gone through the normal procedures due to the short period in which it was produced, provided some insight into the development of the vaccines. I want to continue to assure, to reassure the public, you know, of Dominica and also the other Caribbean OECS countries, is that all of the vaccines that have been given emergency approval or approval, as in the case of Pfizer, have gone through the stages of development. And what are the stages of development? One, there's a computer algorithm that is used to model how the vaccine will interact with the immune system. So it first is a computer algorithm. Then it is tested in cells in a culture and that is in a test tube. Okay, so I remember you, I know you remember when you did science at school, there were different things that you would do in a test tube. So that's what happened. From there, when they are satisfied with the information they get, they move to testing on animals. After animal testing, that's when they move to human testing. Now this human testing is done in three stages where they check the efficacy, they check to see how it works, what's the possible impact on humans and all of that. And these are done by many different and gross different countries. This information, when they are satisfied now, is put together and sent and applied through the different licensure agency. In the case of America, is the Food and Drug Administration. And of course, in other countries, all those who are responsible for allowing this to be used and used. So the vaccines that we are receiving now come from WHO, PAHO, you know, and approved by this agency. All of these have gone through these stages of development. As the region continues to fight new cases of the virus, health professionals continue to re-emphasize the benefits of vaccines in combating the COVID-19 pandemic. From the Government Information Service, Helmede Mark reporting. In other news now, the Ministry of Commerce, Manufacturing, Business Development, Cooperatives and Consumer Affairs in partnership with the Embassy of the Republic of China, Taiwan, is gearing up to host the 14th annual St. Lucia Taiwan Partnership Trade Show on November 26 to 27, 2021. The trade show will showcase the unique products and the sales of Taiwanese and St. Lucia MSMEs to both the local and international community, while encouraging the general public and business entities to buy local. Propelling business development through technology is a theme for the 14th annual St. Lucia Taiwan Partnership Trade Show, scheduled for November 26 to 27, 2021. Minister for Commerce, Manufacturing, Business Development, Cooperatives and Consumer Affairs, Hon. Emma Hippolit, alongside her team from the Commerce Ministry, met with Taiwanese Ambassador His Excellency Peter Shen and his delegation to advance planning efforts for this year's trade show. The trade show aims to heighten awareness of ICT business solutions while showcasing unique products and services from Taiwanese and St. Lucia micro, small and medium enterprises to a local and international audience. To increase trade and business is a very important job for my Embassy and also to enhance the relationship between Taiwan and St. Lucia. And as you know, Taiwan is a trade country. We export a lot of our products. So that's also one of our mandate to export, to help our company to export their products. But also we try to increase the awareness of Taiwanese about what good products in St. Lucia and to enhance mutual interaction or exchange between the business between two countries. Hon. Hippolit noted that the Ministry of Commerce will assist all St. Lucia businesses to improve the standard and quality of their products and services to be export ready and to build their competitiveness. We must get businesses going. It is when the business materials and makes profit, we need to employ people and long and short of it is every St. Lucia wants a decent job that it can get an income and that it can feed their families. That is a summary of what all of us want. And we can only do this when we have a Ministry of Commerce supporting the business community, talking to them, removing and helping them remove the challenges that they have and helping them get into new markets. Marketing specialists with the Ministry of Commerce, Cindy Eugene said due to COVID-19, this year's trade show will rely heavily on the use of ICT as the platform to propel business development and to increase awareness of St. Lucia products and services. The trade show here is part of the love St. Lucia campaign because the love St. Lucia campaign is an emphasis to encourage persons to be familiar with what St. Lucia produces, encourage the use of St. Lucia goods, encourages the trade of St. Lucia goods and services. And here we look at goods and services from Taiwan and the partnership here is to get some support from Taiwan, be it that we can trade, be it that we can see some great distribution of goods from Taiwan within the Caribbean, and we can also seek to get some manufacturing tools, some machinery to improve our processes here in St. Lucia to have more efficient products similar to what we see coming out of Taiwan. Ambassador Chen believes that the focused ICT and virtual platforms at the trade show will attract greater interest in Taiwan on other international jurisdictions. I think there's a lot of products and a lot of good resources in St. Lucia and I really encourage more people to come to St. Lucia or more people to do business or invest in St. Lucia. A memorandum of understanding will also be signed at the trade show between the Taiwan External Trade Development Council and the St. Lucia Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture. We are hoping that by signing the MOU, members of the two bodies would have an opportunity to start doing business to business arrangements with the counterparts in Taiwan. The 14th annual St. Lucia-Taiwan Partnership Trade Show will feature 14 Taiwanese companies, 12 solution businesses, the American Chamber of Commerce in Barbados, and the DigiGolf project from St. Lucia. For the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council, Glenn Simon reporting. The Ministry of Youth Development and Sports and the National Youth Council have forged a closer partnership following a meeting with Minister Hon. Kenson Kazimir. Julita Peter reports. Minister for Youth Development and Sports Hon. Kenson Kazimir has expressed his commitment to strengthening the relationship between his ministry and the National Youth Council NYC. The Youth Development and Sports Minister, who met with the executive of the NYC earlier this month, stated that he held youth development very close to his heart. He added that St. Lucia's youth needed to have a greater input in the development of their country. For me, it is very important that the youth gets to sit at the table, the youth gets the opportunity to share their perspective on how we develop this land, simply because the way we develop this land will ultimately affect their generation and the generations after. So I've always been one who's part of the youth movement in my community, and so it's something that I treasure and I hold a lot of fond memories from. President of the National Youth Council, Anja Edwin, welcomed the opportunity to meet with the ministry officials. Tree-rehoping that whatever comes out of this meeting will be a very, very beneficial discussion that is going to read down to a lot of action and not just talk for the young people of St. Lucia. Meanwhile, Honourable Kazemi commented on the importance of the youth being given the same concern and regard as shown to other stakeholders and prominent members of society. He urged the NYC to constantly speak out and to ensure that their voice and the voices of the youth of St. Lucia are always heard. So you let me speak a lot about, for instance, given persons in the creative industry, persons in dance, performing arts, the same amount of attention as you would give a Darren Sammy, the same amount of attention you would give to a John L Eugene, that sort of thing. That is how I see youth development, and I don't see youth development coming from the top down, which is why we are meeting here today. I think it has to come bottom up, but it has to be symbiotic. It has to be at a level where there is always conversation and consultation, and so if anybody heard my false contribution to the Parliament, I championed the call for, from St. Cabinet, ensuring that if you're going to be dealing with a scourge like COVID-19 that affects young people a lot, and we're dealing with a dynamic where we have a variant that seems to be affecting persons within the age range of youth that we must have a young person at the seat of the table. Minister Kazame plans to meet more regularly with the NYC to ensure that his ministry's goals for the organization are achieved. Julia Tepita reporting for the Ministry of Youth Development and Sports. The skills and capabilities of law enforcement, customs defense and security forces responsible for border controls to detect firearms trafficking have been significantly enhanced following the detection of firearms trafficking training course. The course which came to a close on Friday 24th September focused on the detection of firearms trafficking through postal and fast parcels at land and maritime borders. Deputy Postmaster General Dennis Inglis expressed gratitude to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime UNODC for the well-designed course. And I'm happy that this has not dissuaded agencies from focusing efforts on dealing with other ills that affect our borders. And these ills, for example, I was speaking about the trafficking of illegal firearms. And this has caused an urgent need for training exercises like this to build capacity and also to implement relevant changes. In that regard, I would like to thank or show my appreciation for UNODC impacts, paramount impacts, and the Government of Central Asia for this timely intervention. Rest assured, we at the post office will ensure that our team members are basically employing whatever skills that they learn to train inside the training session. Deputy Comptroller of Customs, Shilman Emmanuel, describing the training as timely, highlighted its significance in keeping St. Lucia's border safe. The Customs Department is pleased that we will not only include it, but we could also collaborate with others in this exercise. We believe, like the Royal St. Lucia Police Force and the Postal Service as well, our mandate has a significant national security implication if it is not carried out as important. So this training is timely. It is timely. And we are happy that we could have had the number of officers benefit from this training. And we do believe that the training will be implemented, will be carried out, and we believe that it is going to be a quality lead about our border security situation. Minister for External Affairs, International Trade, Civil Aviation and Aspiral Affairs, Honourable Alphabaptiste, noted that such trainings are paramount to preventing crime and keeping the relevant agencies one step ahead of the criminal entities. Police reports recently found that some organized criminal groups have been using parcel services to smuggle firearms into countries often by selling their parts and components separately because they are harder to detect. So they sent a weapon not in its totality, not the whole weapon, but they sent different parts. And you see a real component. It will not arouse any suspicion. And therefore, there must be glad nexus between pastimes, police, postal services, and every aspect of that chain that is responsible for ensuring that we are smarter than the criminal networks that are sending firearms to all countries. The one-week training course was facilitated by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime UNODC and the Caricum Impacts. This is NTIA Nightly. Primers Hutchinson is up next. Stay with us. Welcome back. We join Primers Hutchinson for the NTIA Nouvelle Aquéole. G.I.S. NTIA Nouvelle Aquéole, Primers Hutchinson. G.I.S. NTIA Nouvelle Aquéole, Primers Hutchinson. F.E.K.O.P.O.N.K.I. This is K.E.B.L.A.M.E. E.P.I. Caricum. A common global satellite of all the Earth to connect to the U.S. to reach a normal relationship between the E.P.I.D. and the E.P.I.K.O.P.A. and to address the economic crisis that has blocked the ability to increase the economy. And this is also an obstacle to be able to realize a complete economic unification. Prime Minister Lucie F.E.K.O.P.O.N.K.I. I am also grateful to the Minister for the support of the E.P.I. Caricum for their service, education, sports, and social development. The E.P.I.K.O.P.O.N.K.I. has the benefit of a normal relationship between the E.P.I.K.O.P.A.M.E. and the E.P.I.K.O.P.A. Prime Minister Pierre Obsovéki, I don't think I'm going to be able to tell you that it's important for young people to accept the great responsibility that we have to do. Any address that observes young people who are doing tourism in the land, Ministers are doing tourism, as said by Dr. Ernest Hiller. It's an appeal to continue doing tourism, to give resilience and durability to the industry of tourism, even if the industry is going to try and act, and the pandemic is going to end. Except for the fact that Ministers Hiller said that not everyone is going to participate in doing tourism. Dr. Hiller said that it's important for young people to continue doing tourism, to give resilience and durability to the industry of tourism, even if the industry is going to try and act, and the pandemic is going to end. Ministers are doing tourism, as said by Dr. Ernest Hiller. In addition to the fact that Ministers are doing tourism, we expect that the industry in the land, to be able to do a very good job of the industry and to maintain a sense of prestige. And Ministers are doing tourism, as said by Dr. Ernest Hiller. It's an appeal to keep the industry going, especially in the land where the industry can come. I'm going to be able to tell you that Ministers are doing tourism, as said by Dr. Ernest Hiller. to work for the tourism industry itself and to build a gym that is for agriculture and for the economy of the youth. Dr. Hilediki learned a lot of things that depend on the industry of tourism. For example, these are just the voyages, the work of the people, the taxis, the companies that bring tourism, tourism, everything. The work of the hotels, the riverbeds, all of which are for the establishment of tourism, all of which are for the development of tourism. The concept of tourism is a voyage to the earth, which is that the first program of the vaccine is to continue and all the restrictions of the travel are reduced. All of the 70 million of the work that we are asking for is to live in a place that is very, very beautiful in 2020. During the corona pandemic, I was called to several educational institutions to do this, but there are many children who have returned to the school. This is because the service of education of the children makes it a reality. Officers who do this for training, that is the favorite of the clerks. It is their collaboration and several agencies that make it possible to work with several government agencies, the health review, to ensure that the children are finally able to work in these institutions to support the development that is going on. Madam February also said that we have to implement a plan and health review to establish all these protocols to ensure that all protections are in place to ensure this. Administrators who do these institutions for the education of children, that is precious jewels early childhood development, that is Dona Sanchez, said that these institutions to ensure that the children are able to assist these children because their children have the benefits to ensure that the children are able to criticise life. If we are to continue to work with all these institutions for the education that is being done, it is because we have established these protocols that make it easier for these officers to follow the education of the children that you are going to work with presently in these institutions. And that is why we are here today. I thank you so much for watching, Madam. I thank you for inviting me to come again to tell you about the life of our new president. Thank you very much. That brings us to the end of NTN Nightly. Join us next time at 7 p.m. with a repeat at 7 a.m. You can also catch up with us anytime on the St. Lucia Government Facebook page or YouTube channel. I am Channel Novel.