 Good morning ladies and gentlemen of the press. Thank you very much for being here. I'm pleased to report to you that the cabinet of ministers met on Monday, August 9th, under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Hon. Philip J.P.A. and as as the Prime Minister's press secretary I'm indicated to you that was the very first meeting of cabinet under the chairmanship of Hon. Philip J.P.A. Prime Minister. The COVID-19 pandemic and health care in general featured prominently as addressing the current health care crisis is the number one priority of this government. We received the presentation from the Chief Medical Officer Dr. Sharon Belma George and other members of the Command Center including the Commissioner of Police Dr. Felicia who heads the lab. The following decisions were taken. One, the Prime Minister will address the nation after or following the NIMAC meeting tomorrow. Two, there will be measures to help slow down the spread of the COVID-19 virus and to help contain and stop the current spike. Three, further announcements will be made by Prime Minister Hon. Philip J.P.A. Four, there will be no mandatory vaccinations or the Prime Minister has indicated that our government will not, I repeat, our government will not propose mandatory vaccination. Five, a robust education campaign is being planned to encourage testing and also to encourage the public and to encourage solutions to get vaccinated. Six, resources will be provided to increase access to testing. Seven, strategies to incentivize people to get vaccinated will be employed. St. Jude. The Cabinet also had extensive discussions on the St. Jude Hospital reconstruction project. Our priority is to transfer the people, the patients and staff who are at the St. Jude Hospital out of the stadium within the shortest possible time. The Cabinet has decided to engage a small team of professionals to provide expert opinions on the best option moving forward. Advice from the group of experts should come to the Cabinet within four weeks, after which the Cabinet will proceed to implement the advice of the experts, the advice of the experts. Meanwhile, we are looking to ease the suffering of the people who are at the St. Jude Hospital, both patients, staff and the individuals who visit patients and who seek services at the St. Jude Hospital. The Cabinet has also decided that the St. Jude Hospital reconstruction site will be visited by the Cabinet of Ministers and other invited guests. A date for this visit will be provided to the people of St. Lucia and to the press. I, as Minister with Responsibility for Health and Wellness and also elderly affairs, I visited the St. Jude Hospital and had some very cordial discussions with Dr. Francois, who is the doctor in charge of the management of the hospital, as some people may know, Mrs. Ernest is on sick leave and she is the CEO of the St. Jude Hospital. We discussed what generally is termed the low-hanging fruits and a list of very important items and also very important issues was sent to me by Dr. Faswa and the government will look into these issues to ensure that we can solve some of the very important issues there and to see whether we can assist the hospital with some very basic items which will make life a little easier for the doctors, the patients and St. Lucia's who visit the St. Jude Hospital. I will report to you and to St. Lucia's a little later in the week on the progress which we are making in relation to solving these basic issues. I also visited the Victoria Hospital, the Victoria Respiratory Hospital and had discussions with the head of the Respiratory Hospital, Ms. Nancy Francis and again we looked at the issue of low-hanging fruits, what are some of the issues or the basic issues which can make life easier for both the patients and the doctors and also the medical and ancillary staff. One of the issues has to do with communication and the telephone system very basic but very important for communication between the medical staff and also the relatives of patients. We have heard from the relatives of patients that it is very difficult for them to communicate with the hospital and this was confirmed by the staff and the Prime Minister has given a directive to me to try within the shortest possible time to solve this problem. We have been in discussions with various bodies that are connected to the health system here in St. Lucia and very soon the Prime Minister, Minister for Health, Yoham Gotsuban will meet with the Medical and Dental, the St. Lucia Medical and Dental Association among other organizations to ensure that we get a very quick grip on this continuing health care crisis which faces us here in St. Lucia to ensure that we give St. Lucia much better options and to ensure that we bring these issues under control. Thank you very much.