 Welcome to NTN Nightly. I am Janelle Norvell. This edition stops stories. Saint Lucia's are urged to follow COVID protocols as three cases of the dangerous Delta variant are confirmed in country. Honourable Dr Ernest Hiller shares his vision for Saint Lucia's economic growth through investment. And Youth Development and Sports Minister Honourable Kenson Kazemi Saint Lucia's National Health Response Systems have been heightened following the confirmation of the Delta COVID variant in country. Chief Medical Officer Dr Sharon Belmar George some two weeks ago had alerted the nation to the possible entrance of the Delta variant, given that neighbouring Martinique and Saint Vincent had recorded cases. The CMO says at this juncture, it is absolutely critical for all Saint Lucians to add head to the protocols in order to mitigate the spread of this highly transmissible and dangerous strain of the COVID-19. On Friday 13th August 2021, Chief Medical Officer Dr Sharon Belmar George, during an update to the nation, explained that the country had confirmed its first cases of the COVID-19 variant of concern, the Delta variant. Results from the Caribbean Public Health Agency CARFA confirmed three cases of the Delta variant, formerly known as the Indian variant. CARFA also confirmed three new cases of the Alpha variant, formerly known as the British variant. All three individuals and locals bringing the total number of cases of the Alpha variant recorded in country to date to 54. And our three Delta variant cases, three are U.S. Nationals and we have one Saint Lucian case. Of the six cases, only one of them is a fully vaccinated person. From the three Delta variants, they're all female and they range from 18 to 37 years old. Of the four local cases, three of the four local cases are from the south of the island. So as we, as we looking at our data for the last few weeks, we suspected that we may have had the Delta variant in country and we have just received the confirmation that we do have the Delta variant in country. The Delta variant was first diagnosed in India in October of 2020. As of the 3rd of August, the variant has been confirmed in at least 132 of all six of the World Health Organization's regions and in at least 14 of the Caribbean islands. The Delta variant forms about 90% of new cases in the UK and over 80% of cases in the U.S. and France. This variant, due to its level of transmissibility, has become the dominant variant in some 13 countries. The variant remains of great concern for health officials due to a number of reasons, including the fact that the Delta variant is 97% more transmissible when compared to other strains of the virus. It is known to cause more severe disease hospitalization as well as increased ICU admission and deaths. They note that the preliminary evidence suggests that the hospitalization rate for unvaccinated persons is a lot higher and the Delta variant is known to have an estimated over 100 times the viral load of the regular strain of the SARS-CoV and also a very a shorter time for exposure to infection compared to the regular strain. Now we do have a definition as to what a contact is when we do contact tracing and it is based on the contact time with a positive case. Because of the viral load of the Delta variant, it means it takes a shorter time period in which you can become positive if you are in contact with someone who is positive. So it is a lot easier to spread and it also spreads to a lot more persons. The chief medical officer explained that the regular COVID-19 strain and the alpha variant saw the targeting of elderly individuals and individuals with chronic conditions. However, with the Delta variant, the younger age groups are being affected and having complications. A trend according to Dr. Belmar George already been witnessed at the respiratory hospital as younger individuals, some of them without chronic conditions, are being affected. Analyzing the situation in neighboring Martinique, the CMO indicated that the confirmation brings into focus a St. Lucia's health systems capacity to deal with the Delta variant. To put it in context, the reality when we look at the health situation of Martinique being overwhelmed, we have to use our capacity. Our respiratory hospital bed capacity is 123. We can bring it to a maximum of 130 squeezing in some more beds. It is extremely important at this point that whatever measures we have in place and that our population note the critical point that we are, we cannot allow our health system to be overwhelmed. We have 123 beds within our respiratory hospital. We cannot allow our complicated cases, our cases that need hospital care to come close to that number. And this is where we start getting increased deaths, probably not just from being COVID-19 positive, the incapacity of the health system to manage those numbers. The chief medical officer urged all individuals to follow all stipulated COVID-19 protocols, taking personal responsibility for the actions and the health and safety of the public. Meantime in the last 28 days, the island has recorded 640 cases of COVID-19 with a prevalence rate of 337.3 per 10,000 persons. Dr. Michelle Faswa is a national epidemiologist. Over the past seven days, we have had 6294 cases for tailing. When you look at our cases over the past 14 days, we have recorded 497 compared to the previous 30 days where we were at 143 cases. Similarly, if you look at the last month or the last 30 days, we recorded 654 cases compared to the 271 in the previous 30 days. When we look at the distribution by age and sex, we note that male and female, there isn't a significant difference in the male and female coming in with COVID-19. However, we do see that the age group 25 to 49 is the age group that is most affected, presenting, sorry, with the highest number of cases followed by the age group 50 plus. Next slide, please. When we look at age specific rates, we continue to see the age group 25 to 49 being the most significantly affected, which is actually followed by our age group 18 to 24. So when we adjusted based on the population of the various age groups, our age group 18 to 24 is actually the second most affected age group compared to the other age groups. We note that our children, although they do contract COVID-19, the numbers are still relatively small. 95 COVID deaths have been recorded. 66 percent of the deaths are male. The age group 65 and over is most significantly affected, given the likely complications from the underlying conditions of diabetes and hypertension. When we look at where these cases are coming from, the numbers point to castries, in terms that we have the highest number of cases from castries. But when we do the prevalence by health district, we'll see that Babonore would be the region most heavily affected, followed by ancillary and grossly. So these are the areas also, some of these areas that we are seeing breaches in protocols, that we are seeing many activities happening, and it is reflecting in our data. This is a distribution, next slide please, by months, just so you could see what we have been tracking. Our major outbreak had been in January to February, and in March we saw abrupt decline in the number of cases. But I want you to focus also on August here, and we are at August, almost halfway through August, but we are at the numbers that we saw in July, midway through August. So we are expecting the numbers to continue climbing. There are several reasons we now faced with the variants of concern. We had several activities, and it is of note that the numbers have continued to climb. We have not included the numbers for today as yet, but they are also significant. National Epidemiologist Dr. Michelle Faswa. In other developments, Minister for Tourism, Investment, Creative Industries, Culture and Information, Honourable Dr. Ernest Hilaire on Friday met with the Chief Executive Officer and Managers of Investing, Lucia, as he continues to familiarize himself with personnel at the various departments within his ministry. The discussion centered not only on the operations of the agency, but importantly, the role of the agency in growing the economy. Hamadi Mark reports. Minister for Tourism, Investment, Creative Industries, Culture and Information, Honourable Dr. Ernest Hilaire and the Parliamentary Secretary, Honourable Gibyan Fudanen, along with Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Donna Lynn Vite have been meeting with entities under the investment portfolio to chart the way forward for St Lucia. Friday, 13 August 2021, the team met with Investing Lucia to familiarize themselves with the work and processes of the agency. It is really to get an update on the work program of the various agencies, to get an understanding of what they've been doing, to also get an understanding of how they see their work program evolving over the next five years. With a new government in place, there's a new mandate, there are new visions, there's a new vision. The idea is that we would want to ensure that the agencies understand our priorities for us and to have that interaction, so they understand where we want to head. Some of the agencies have been very proactive in reading the manifesto and already starting to suggest how they can incorporate their promises made in the manifesto within their work program. So I think for us it has been a very productive week. Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism, Investment, Creative Industries, Culture and Information, Honourable Gibyan Fudanen indicated that some of the initiatives of Investing Lucia are in alignment with the government's vision for the country. We noticed that there's a boost program that is aligned with the idea of the youth economy that the Prime Minister had been very articulate about in our campaign and we were able to get a sense of what is happening in Investing Lucia with other major developments such as the land rationalization in the North and South and I think that gives us an idea of what programs Investing Lucia has that can help us achieve the objectives that our government has set. Chief Executive Officer of Investing Lucia, Roger Cherry says Investing Lucia and the Government of Saint Lucia have a similar objective to put Saint Lucia and Saint Lucia first. One initiative being undertaken by the agency that speaks to this vision is land rationalization. Part of our strategic initiatives has been to give Saint Lucia ownership of Saint Lucia and one of the main initiatives that we've done towards that is to facilitate land ownership by two strategic initiatives. One is land developments, land that Investing Lucia owns have been developed and sold primarily if not 100% to Saint Lucia. The other aspect of that is land development as well but what we call land rationalization in that case the individual Saint Lucia's who have lived on lands owned by the state or by Investing Lucia for a number of years and the aim really is to provide the basic infrastructure at least and in some cases very extensive infrastructure and sell those lands at reasonable rates way below market rates to two Saint Lucia's. The minister and his team will continue to meet with key agencies under his portfolio as he charts the way forward from the government information service. Minister for Youth Development and Sports Hon. Kenson Kazemi has congratulated Saint Lucia's Olympic team on representing the country at the 2020 Olympic Games held in Tokyo. Hon. Kazemi said despite being faced with the uncertainty brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic the team persevered and represented to the best of its ability. We applaud the very tenacity of our champions and remain greatly appreciative of the fact that you the athletes have given your very best performance every time you stepped out into your competition zones. We trust that this was an unforgettable experience which will elevate you into an even greater dimension of your athletic abilities. The ministry takes this opportunity to wish you all the best in your future endeavors as you journey back to your respective destinations. We urge you to continue striving to be the best version of yourself that you can possibly be. Rest assured the ministry of youth development and sports remains committed to providing our support to assist you and all our future Olympians in striving for gold. Saint Lucia's contingent at the Olympic Games consisted of High Jumper Louvain Spencer, Swimmers Jaluk Zephyr and Makayla Charmaine and Sailor Stephanie Duvall-Lavelle and Luc Chevrier. In other youth matters Saint Lucia joined the world in celebrating International Youth Day on the 12th of August 2021 under the theme Transforming Food Systems, Youth Innovation for Human and Planetary Health. Hon. Kenson Kazemi in a statement commemorating the observance encouraged young Saint Lucians to innovate, utilize best practices and the nation's natural resources to contribute to Saint Lucia's food security. As a small island developing state we are tremendously endowed with natural ecosystems that yield and contribute to the sustainability of terrestrial and marine life. It is through these natural resources young people can be innovative in realizing human and planetary health. It is no doubt that a healthy nation is a productive nation and we must please emphasis on reducing poverty, mitigating climate change, promoting health, nutrition and sustainable livelihoods. Therefore I take this opportunity to call to action young people who will use technological solutions to engage in best practices for a healthier planet. The youth development and sports minister called on the youth to continue participating in nation building and positively influence the socio-economic and environmental landscape of the country. This is NTN Nightly. Primers Hutchinson is up next. Stay with us. Caribbean ties are connected people then and now a unique exhibition that presents the diversity and complexity in the Caribbean before the arrival of the Europeans. August 1st to the 31st at the 100-year-old Anglican Annex open daily 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Be part of the past still present today through stunning exhibits accompanied by live cultural street entertainment. Save the dates August 1st to the 31st. Welcome back. We join Primers Hutchinson for the NTN Nouvelle in Cuyol. Thank you so much for joining us. We also want more people who go to the hospital and more people who die and get the Delta variant. We also want people who can join the vaccine and people who are affected by the Delta variant. We also want these young people, and we want to encourage them to get the vaccine. We want to encourage people who are infected by the Delta variant. We want to encourage young people to get the vaccine. Before that, he was young and then the health officers to do the same thing and then the operation of the Ministry of Health. Mr. Officer who the Ministry of Health had a few discussions, it was the medical officer, Dr. Sharon Belma George, his health officer to go to the Ministry of Health and then the situation that existed in the Ministry of Health, especially the situation of the corona virus. The Minister of Health declared that he had a great responsibility to protect and even to excite him to start a new job. According to the Ministry of Health, a committee was held and then the Ministry of Health had a lot of work to do with the Ministry of Health and its diverse health departments. The Minister of Health said it was his discussion that was very nice and that he was very appreciative for all his support and assistance. And so, for the first day of work, the Minister said that the Ministry of Health made public health the most important thing for this month, a government that made all the efforts and made all the commitments to try to address the health sector. Mr. Officer, it was also a pleasure to discuss with you and the Chief of the Medical Officer Dr. Sharon Belma George, he found good advice and also good directions that were of great importance to the corona virus. So, I would like to thank you, the Minister of Health, Philip J. Pierre and the Cabinet of the Ministry of Health, for the situation of corona as it existed for the citizens. When I was in the Ministry of Health, there was a lot of discussion and then the Health Officers were in the Victoria Hospital. The Minister said that he had discussed in a very nice way to prove the condition of the Victoria Hospital. There was also a lot of discussion and then the Chief of the Medical Officer Dr. J. The Minister of Health, there was a lot of discussion and then the Health Officers were in the J. The Minister of Health, the Minister of Health, said that he had discussed in a very nice way about the situation, and there was a lot of discussion and discussion and also a lot of discussion, and there was a lot of discussion and discussion. The Minister said that he had discussed with him and the Chief of the Medical Officer, and he had already discussed with him and this direction was of great importance to the corona virus. The Department of Agriculture, PESH, Resource Natural and Co-operative. I started by helping to assist to increase the production of caco in this area. The caco project is for rehabilitation of caco, to provide caco plants that can be provided in a way that is acceptable and that can help to increase the production of caco plants and improve the resilience of the climate change and that can help to affect caco plants. I approached this project because it was an opportunity to provide an agreement that facilitated the efforts to find information for the caco plants in a country with great production and the caco plants that can be used to provide caco plants. This is what we did. We helped to provide caco plants with caco plants and the Agriculture Officer for Region 6, who is also the coordinator of the caco project. That is LROA Alexis. Our initiative is to address the needs of caco plants in a way that can help to reduce the production of caco plants in a way that can provide more information about the caco plants in a way that can help to increase the production of caco plants. The Agriculture Department is collaborating with the Department of Agriculture Research at University of West Indies in Trinidad to analyze and look at the needs of caco plants in the area of caco plants, caco plants that can be used to buy caco plants and they can be used to contact the Extension Agency. These caco plants can be used to provide caco plants, to provide caco plants with caco plants, to provide caco plants with caco plants. That is all. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining me. I would like to remind you that caco plants can be used to provide caco plants with caco plants. I wish you all a good weekend and good luck. Thank you so much for watching becausebelly comes before us at the end of the trip before pop-up time. Hope to see you soon last Sunday at the moon channel. Thank you, PILP primers. Thanks to Ntya Knightley to join us next time at 7 pm. at the moon channel at 7 pm. See you soon next Friday at the moon channel at 7 pm.