 and welcome to another edition of the Week in Review. I believe it is the first for the year. We'd like to welcome you all to this live broadcast on NTN. My name is Jessie Layoffs. I'm joined in studio by my colleagues, Mr. Carlton Cyril, widely known as Cokes and Ms. Lisa Choseff. Today is a Saturday, the 6th of February and this past week has been quite eventful. We so far seen the institution of the second state of emergency here in St. Lucia since the pandemic ensued early last year. I'd like to, first of all, just welcome my colleagues. A special good morning to you all. You both? Sorting through. Yes. Files upon files. Bonjour, bonjour, bonjour. Et puis toujours un plaisir, mesdames,bonrivacar compartment. The days have started withjar WUK is still a lot of development and official coverage We would also like to note, before we go on to the program, that if you're watching on NTN, but you're flipping through the channels, you could also go through to DBS. Not only on cable TV, on there as well. We're also on their Facebook page, so we encourage you to tune on to the DBS Facebook page. The live that is ongoing right now, we're on there right now. You can post your comments, your queries, concerns as we get into this conversation about the state of emergency, curfew, vaccines, pretesting, testing, what have you, everything happening and transpiring updates and more from this week. Traditionally, we would have our own Facebook feed. Unfortunately, we are experiencing some difficulties with that. Just want to let you know that, but we are continuing to work on it. However, the program will be posted there once that is rectified. Also, for the participation for you, we want you to participate. We want to hear your voice. You can call us and we will indicate when that will be. You can call us at telephone number 4682162. That's 4682162. Make note of that, because we will be opening up the lines not too far from now. We also want to let you know that we are going to speak with the on speaking on the immunization. In is coming the vaccine for COVID-19 is coming. We're having some 74,400 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. We'll be speaking to Assistant Principal Nursing Officer, Ms. Jabatis, and she will be giving us some information. Of course, she did issue a press statement earlier this week, but we will just be getting word from her as to where things stand as of today. And we know that efforts right now are feverish in terms of the sensitization, preparation from the Ministry of Health and Wellness, as well as just giving us some some inside information as to their activities right now in preparation for the inoculation exercise. And most importantly, come Tuesday, the parliament will meet. And there are two motions there for consideration, in addition to statements and papers to be laid. The parliament, the motion there is for the parliament to declare the state of emergency, which was published in the Gazette on the 3rd of February as statutory instrument number 27 of 2021. And it contains a declaration of public emergency has arisen as a result of COVID-19 and infectious disease for a further period of 90 days, commencing the 11th of February, 2021 and ending on the 16th of May, 2021. So we know that the Prime Minister on Sunday, Tuesday, it was Tuesday, did indicate that we had a state of emergency instituted. And that would have lasted until the 10th of February. It was for seven days in the first instance. And now going to parliament to have to seek that extension. I know that a lot of people here in the state of emergency creates a lot of panic, but we've been here before. I think the panic is stemming from our first experience with the state of emergency, where it was accompanied with a lockdown. And of course, the scale down of commercial and business activity was far more significant than what we're experiencing this time around. So I think the work and the effort right now is to allay these fears and concerns. I think people have already begun to understand what the layout is like in terms of this state of emergency. We've had three days, three working days to begin to assess what it looks like. And I mean, as we've seen, it's not any great deviation from what obtained when the officials took action about two weeks ago to try to get a hold on the spike in cases, that situation over a thousand cases in one month. There was a scale back in business activity. Schools had been closed. And so this is essentially a continuation. If you look at the essential services list, the businesses that are permitted to open, it's a continuation of that. But there is no lockdown and there is no cessation of all business activity or anything to that effect. It's just providing an opportunity, as like the first instance, to have the government of St. Lucia putched to make decisions on the fly, as we mentioned, and we continue to state. I mean, that's a word I've heard Coke say so many times. The situation is fluid. And so, you know, always the opportunity must be there for quick action to be taken. And, you know, worst case scenario, we are brought to that situation. We must have a lockdown. Then the government of St Lucia is able to do that. But right now, the situation does not necessitate a lockdown. And we are so far seeing quite a bit of reduced activity by the actions that have been so far put in place by the authorities. Reduced activity, reduced mobility of persons. Quite a few businesses are. More persons are working from home. And so that is actually working, you know, to the benefit of this infection reduction effort. Now, the most importantly, before Coke comes in, the state of emergency, while it facilitates having a curfew, this does not mean that the intent is to keep curfew for the entire 90 day period. Because as Jesse indicated, while the state of emergency allows for the government to be able to and public health officials to advise on the quick measures to be taken in order to respond effectively to the situation at hand, there may come a time within that 90 day period that the situation is so beginning to get under control or that the chief medical officer is satisfied to the point that our transmission rates has diminished to a point where it is more manageable. And so that curfew period could actually cease. They can actually just stop that curfew period. But let's put it into context before you come on, Cokes. You need a state of emergency to have a curfew. Yes, but you don't have a state of emergency. And I hope that persons understand this. We do not need to, there's not the likelihood of the continued curfew during this three month period. You will not be required to be under a curfew. If we see a reduction and the officials so guided decide to remove it, it will not be anything extraordinary. That's the only discussion we have here. And then we have talked about the state of emergency and curfew that we have here. We have changed curfew for the prime minister of his nation and for Sergio. But Sergio knows that he will come and tell me. When he will come and tell the prime minister that he will come and talk to me, I will come and add for a three month period to start February 11th for the 16th. But again, this is very important. We have changed curfew for the prime minister of his nation and we have changed curfew for the prime minister of his nation. But curfew has always been working. And then the official government, the health department has put it in place to eat. And then we have to control what is being done and what is being done. And then we have to do a lot of positive tests and then we have to do a lot of things. So we have to inform the government that they will come and add curfew to try to add for a three month period. This is very important. This is not a curfew or a curfew. If the prime minister is in a state of emergency, they will not have to go to the government. If the government is not in a state of emergency, they will not have to go to the prime minister. But the prime minister is in a state of emergency, we need to do it. We have changed our opportunity to apply for the prime minister to give us advice and to contribute to the same things. We have done that. I don't mean to go back into the past, as the Youtube was announced in the fall, we did that, this is just a form of acknowledgement. But just looking back at the way we were yesterday, not only for the country but for so many other reasons. Honestly though, I have no idea what i've said but if you look at the polls and the public equity is more like t次的 indicator, Yeah, but you know just looking back at the last few months we and we were in the period of a state of emergency from between was it April the beginning of April March 23rd to the 26th and it was extended from April 27 to May 31st to and then there was a third one June 1st to September 30th okay to September 30th and you know if we could just look at the figures just put the period and alongside with the figures you know we enjoyed quite low figures of COVID-19 and no deaths you know at that point you know coming into October November when we experienced the second wave of COVID-19 here in St. Lucia something that we were able to manage and get a grip on so much so that we were afforded the opportunity to have some reduced restrictions for the festive season for Christmas and there lies the very you know the very concerning slippery slope that we're on right now precarious crossing you know that we came over and you know the population was given an opportunity to be festive and to be merry while still observing certain restrictions in you know in the country but we so far we were called upon to in effect govern ourselves if you will discretion and yes and we were asked to take control of the situation but each of us play in our part the advice was there so the advice was given for us to follow unfortunately not all of us followed as we should have and hence where we are at now and the Ministry of Health latest figures coming out on Friday it is worrying I mean we have to admit that it is very very worrying they received confirmation just to go through the statement that the Ministry released they received confirmation from the Azure long lab of 257 new cases and that was from a batch of 886 tests conducted for the period January 25th to February 2nd so they were now closing in on that backlog that we've had so we had 257 cases there now also over three day period right absolutely but we also had a total of 22 tests were conducted with 32 confirmed positive also on the 2nd of February on February 3rd which is Wednesday we had 255 tests conducted and 90 confirmed positive and February 4th on Thursday we had 409 tests conducted with 135 confirmed positive there so critically important the ministry says with the current increase in the number of cases of COVID-19 the ministry has amended the isolation strategy for management of confirmed cases what does that mean isolation now is being conducted through both state based sites and community based isolation this allows for a greater degree of vigilance in the management of the milder COVID cases I'm given home isolation cannot be effectively conducted for some individuals who have been placed in care care but listen you know that that brings us to the point where you know Christmas time there were breaches observed and even action taken by law enforcement you know but with this extent of not only dealing with persons having to home quarantine and isolate now in their various communities now we're seeing what is the capacity to police it and so it's incumbent on the individual now to ensure that they adhere to the protocols in the continued fight against COVID-19 and since we can't rely on ourselves to do what's best for ourselves but the government now I mean we have to admit that the numbers the numbers are very telling and of course it shows that there's pressure being made to bear on the resources that is both institutional the human resources well so now the government has reopened the public health facility as well as getting commissioning another hotel in order for us to be able to accommodate these growing numbers put up a guard a curtain here you know see back I don't know if I'm a dick or no keep on you know to make on a curtain here can be a listen I need to tell a lot no come on say car glissair keep us some new kind of good yes I'll take open because sir government people point say say see back I don't know metham plus one and say the active say oh and hot name up to fair ass you a new We can control that. For that, I want to tell you that we have a lot of problems with COVID-19. I want to tell you that we have a lot of confirmation that we will be able to make it as easy as possible. Because we have 257 people who will be able to test positive and then COVID-19. We have 886 people who will be able to test positive and then COVID-19. On Monday, February 2nd, we will have 226 people who will be able to test positive and then COVID-19. On February 3rd, we will have 256 people who will be able to test positive and then COVID-19. On Wednesday, we will have 425 people who will be able to test positive and then COVID-19. On Wednesday, we will have 256 people who will be able to test positive and then COVID-19. On Wednesday, we will have 256 people who will be able to test positive and then COVID-19. On Wednesday, we will have 256 people who will be able to test positive and then COVID-19. On Wednesday, we will have 256 people who will be able to test positive and then COVID-19. On Wednesday, we will have 256 people who will be able to test positive and then COVID-19. On Wednesday, we will have 256 people who will be able to test positive and then COVID-19. On Wednesday, we will have 256 people who will be able to test positive and then COVID-19. On Wednesday, we will have 256 people who will be able to test positive and then COVID-19. On Wednesday, we will have 256 people who will be able to test positive and then COVID-19. On Wednesday, we will have 256 people who will be able to test positive and then COVID-19. There have been new protocols that have been put in place for easier access for persons who feel ill at this time. So if you have symptoms associated with COVID-19, antigen tests will be used for screening in high-risk settings and in workspaces. Also exit tests for travelers will be facilitated at private laboratories. Mass testing will be introduced. Two new testing sites will be established. Nationals will also have the option of testing at private laboratories. I believe you mentioned that a little bit earlier. Yes, so we will be able to have that. But if you, from the antigen test, if you do get a positive, you have to bag that with a PCR test. That would be done. And I think that the antigen test, the businesses, the number of businesses have begun using that to really know what's happening with their staff and that sort of thing. So I think it also gives some degree of comfort, if you will. However, however, we have to be careful that we're not allowing ourselves to be if you've taken an antigen test, it has come up negative and then you, all of a sudden, you let your guard down because I'm good, I'm free, I'm clean, if you will. And then you let in your guard down and by doing so, place yourself in harm's way. So we have to be very, very careful about this. Absolutely. And also coming out of the announcement by the Prime Minister, pretesting, that's another aspect that has been adjusted. We've, we heard from the Prime Minister that a pretesting individuals who want to travel to St. Lucia, the time period for getting tested and coming up with a PCR, a negative PCR test to come to St. Lucia is five days. It's gone from seven to five days. And that is again, in an effort to be able to nip COVID-19 in the bud at the borders as soon as possible. Okay. So we are going to speak with the Assistant Principal Nursing Officer, Ms. Tecla Jabatis. That's coming up after a short break we're taking. Remember the vaccine is coming to St. Lucia by the end of February. And we want to discuss with the Ms. Jabatis the sort of plan that the ministry has in place for that. Stay with us. We're taking a quick break. She's on the other side of that. I'm Jim Joseph, President of the St. Lucia Community Group. We believe St. Lucia can win the war against the coronavirus and his health. Every community in St. Lucia must mobilize, coordinate, monitor, and support residents the way we would before, during, and after a natural disaster. Identify volunteers in your community, assign them roles, and deploy them. Ensure your elderly and vulnerable understand all protocols. Help relatives, shield them from unnecessary contact with others. Identify those recently unemployed and vulnerable neighbors living alone. Put systems in place to filter updates from official sources throughout your community. Promote the hotline number 311. If it takes a village to raise a child, then all of us can come together to defend the village against the coronavirus. Let's do it. And as promised, we're having the discussion now on the St. Lucia's receipts of the AstraZeneca vaccine. We have some 74,400 doses due to arrive here on Island come at the end of February, perhaps into the first week of March, just to allow some degree of allowance in case anything were to be delayed. However, the point is the vaccine is coming. And with that, we'll be able to have something in the region of 37,000 St. Lucia's will be able to be vaccinated 20% of the population. But online we have with us and let's say good morning to Ms. Tecla Jabatis. Can you hear us clearly? Wonderful. Good morning, Ms. Jabatis. I know for you and your rest of your colleagues, it may be a sort of rush right now because I although I know that the ministry has been preparing for this day for some time, perhaps you can give us a little background information as to what the preparation has been like, and it is sort of program that you have already decided upon for the rollout of the vaccine. Okay, thanks. Thanks again for giving me that opportunity to be on the program this morning. Well, the Ministry of Health like that of many other countries in the Caribbean, we are working diligently to access and to make available the COVID-19 vaccine to our population. So we are of course making big strides towards that, as you would have been aware, and it was announced by the Prime Minister that we have received confirmation of an allocation of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine to St. Lucia. Of course, this has been received through the COVAX facility, and we know that the COVAX facility equity is what they are all about. We need to ensure that there is fair and equitable access to the vaccine by those who need it. So of course, at the Ministry of Health, we have a COVID-19 vaccine committee, which is planning and coordinating the rollout for the vaccine introduction and deployment in country. We have decided that the rollout of this vaccine is going to take a phased approach. We have established a free phased approach. Of course, we know at the initial stages, there will be limited there will be limited amount of vaccine. So as such, we saw it important to offer the vaccine or make it available rather to persons who are at high risk to COVID-19 infection. So just to give you sort of an overview or rather what the phase is until. So in the initial phase, as I said, the target would include who are at high risk. So we hear we're talking about our high exposure healthcare workers, our frontline workers, the police, the fire officers, those who are in the frontline, those who are in direct contact with patients, especially COVID positive patients. Our person 65 years and older, we know most persons in that category are at higher risk. For many reasons, the age and the presence of comorbid conditions such as chronic non communicable diseases. We would also be focusing on the elderly in communities and also those in missing homes. In the second phase, of course, by that time, we would have had an increased supply, but it would still be limited. Because one of the things that I probably want to say is that, yes, we have an allocation, but it won't be coming all at once. So San Dusha won't be receiving the entire 20%. But of course, this will be delivered to us in trenches. So hence the reason why it will be very limited in the very first phase. But by the second phase, we expect that we would have a lot more vaccine to be able to reach out to other persons. And in that phase, of course, we would be targeting persons of medium risk. We have some healthcare workers, not those who are not directly in the frontline, but to some extent are at risk. These persons will be targeted. Likewise, our firemen and policemen, the caregivers of individuals and persons with non communicable diseases. And in the third phase, of course, we would be focusing at that time, we would have a lot more vaccines, there would be enough to supply the rest of the population. So we would focus now on the non essential workers and the rest of the population and anybody who is at low risk. Also I need to, in terms of our rollout, the cabinet of ministers has agreed for this vaccine to be made available at no cost to the citizens and it shall be provided on a voluntary basis. So it is important for our people, our population, our citizenry to know that. In terms of our capacity to roll out and the plans surrounding that, the AstraZeneca vaccine, of course, its storage capacity is similar to that of other vaccines in our national program. It does not require any cold storage and as such, storage and deployment will be a lot easier. It will be available at all our wellness centers across the island. Yes, sorry about that. It will be available at all our wellness centers across the island. Of course in terms of meeting high risk groups such as fire, health, police, we would be targeting these groups in sort of a workplace approach. We would be going to them rather. So we would be visiting in health institutions, fire stations, police stations in order to get those persons vaccinated. However, the other persons in the other phases there would require to be a pre-registration, a pre-registration for the vaccine. So at all wellness centers, persons can call, persons belonging to the various target groups, can call to pre-register. This is important to us so that we are better able to plan our actual roll-out of vaccines on the set date. And it allows us to prepare and to plan because what we want to have is a successful administration of the vaccine. We don't want persons to be waiting on long lines as we would have seen in many of other countries who are actually rolling out the COVID-19 vaccine at this time. Just to ask Ms. Jabatis with respect to the sensitization, what is the plan for that? Because we know the skepticism about the vaccine. It is something that is present in St. Usha. We've heard and you just made mention there of some other countries, certainly in other countries where people are taking vaccines. There is a segment of the population that doesn't believe in the vaccine. So what about sanitizing St. Usha on how safe the vaccine is, perhaps its effectiveness as well? St. Usha, of course, continues to rely on the World Health Organization when it comes to vaccines. And this is just to ensure that whatever vaccines that we make available to our population is safe, it is efficacious, and it is of good quality. I mean, persons in St. Usha, we know. Some are really awaiting the vaccines. We have others who are very apprehensive. As you said, on the media, we hear lots of things. One of the major concerns is that of how fast the vaccine was developed. I just want to assure our population that the vaccines that we are going to be receiving in St. Usha, first off, is going to be pre-qualified by the World Health Organization. And of course, the vaccines before pre-qualification would have gone through rigorous trials and would have to be approved by several regulatory agencies before a final approval is given. So rest assured that the vaccine that is going to be made available is one that is safe. Of course, we know that persons oftentimes use the media and the decision to accept or not accept the vaccine depends on what they see. We understand that. Hence the reason why in the coming weeks, you will see there will be lots of programs. Just to inform persons about the vaccine, it's benefit to them. So there will be lots of work. There will be PSAs. There will be talk shows and talk shows, sorry, and other news items. To really educate and inform our population about the vaccine and more so the AstraZeneca vaccine that we know is one of the first vaccines that will become available to us here. I just want to show our population, of course, that the COVID-19 vaccine will have the same benefit as other vaccines introduced into our national program. It is a public health strategy to help contain the COVID-19 pandemic that we're having now and to help us achieve immunity to the disease. Go ahead, Jesse, because I was going to just charge you through to Cogs there for a moment. Before Jesse comes in, do you want to talk to us? Absolutely. But before that, Jesse has a question for you. Despite the voluntary basis of this inoculation program, the vaccine essentially is regarded as a salvation for the whole world in grappling with this pandemic. Do you have any timeline? Does the Ministry of Health in St. Lucia have any timeline as per the World Health Organization for ensuring that a certain number of the population has received this vaccine? What is the goal here? For us in terms of a timeline, well, of course, as I said earlier, we have received confirmation from the World Health Organization from COVAX that vaccines should be made available, of course, by the end of February. I just need to also see that we know with COVID-19, the pandemic, it has affected lots of things. And before a vaccine actually gets here, there are lots of logistics as it really is. I mean, apart from approval, we know shipping, etc., having to maintain the coaching throughout that process, getting in country. So yes, we're working along with that timeline of end of February. But bearing in mind all of these logistics, and as Lisa would have said a little earlier, you know, we're giving some allowance, there may be delays. So it's possible that the vaccine can get here sometime early March. I'm not talking about the vaccine arrival. I'm talking about if there's any on the part of the ministry in terms of of the population by a certain period of time. Yes, I'm just getting I'm getting to that. Okay, understood. Yes. So once the vaccine gets here, the Ministry of Health and the team, of course, will be well placed and be ready to roll out. No sooner the vaccine, it gets here. So for phase one, we are actually looking at a two to three months timeline to get at least that first 20% of the population inoculated. So once vaccine gets here will be just will be ready, the vaccination teams, all logistics would be in place and be ready. So two months from that time to two, three months, we should be able to cover the first 20% of the population. Okay. Okay. that is I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm COVID-19 virus. They're not just at least. Infections. have been developed. You are developing a vaccine for a day protective of your people. Right. And it causes the body to fight off or to protect the body from the virus. Your vaccine has developed AP simply C through World Health Organization. I have access to all of them. Yes, we have a confirmation. Yes, we have a confirmation that Nukai is when... 74,400. Just a vaccine. No, a vaccine is AstraZeneca. So, Nukai expects vaccines to be available in February. Because of various things that are involved. So, it is possible that Nukai will be available in February. Or it will be available in March. If the vaccine is available, Nukai will be able to vaccinate the population. Nukai will be able to establish a phase approach. Nukai will be able to do it? In phase. In the first phase, Nukai will be able to directly contact Nukai. Nukai will be able to vaccinate the people who are ill. Nukai will be able to buy a vaccine. So, Nukai will be able to vaccinate the people who are ill. That's right. So, Nukai will be able to vaccinate the people who are ill. That's right. And then, Nukai will be able to vaccinate the people who are ill. So, the direct front line is that it's going to respond to me. So, say, you're not going to come and say by vaccine to me. That also needs a lot of self-money. That's the money. That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. 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