 Welcome to NTN Nightly, I am Anicia Antoine. This edition's pop stories. The Ministry of Health declares an outbreak of dengue fever as cases continue to rise. Staff of school cafeterias receive training on COVID-19 protocols ahead of the new academic year. And the banana sector continues to benefit from the support of the Republic of China, Taiwan. The Ministry of Health and Wellness has declared an outbreak of dengue fever. For weeks, officials have been sensitizing the public on the looming threat of the mosquito-borne viral infection. Nearly 200 cases have been recorded, with several patients requiring hospitalization. Ministry officials say children make up a large number of infected persons. Lisa Joseph reports. National epidemiologist Dr. Michel Foussois says a steady rise in cases of dengue fever has led the Ministry of Health to declare an outbreak. The declaration now warrants immediate and targeted response. As of the week of August 9th to 15th, 2020, there have been 168 confirmed cases of dengue infection. The hospitalization rate has been 46% and case fatality rate remains at 0%. 38% of these reported cases were between the ages of 5 to 14 years. Even more concerning is the fact that both stereotypes 2 and 3 of dengue are in circulation in St. Lucia. The dengue virus is transmitted by female mosquitoes, mainly of the species Aedes aegypti, and to a lesser extent Aedes albopictus. The incubation period is 4 to 10 days after bite. 75% of dengue infections are asymptomatic or mild illness. However, the dengue virus can cause an acute fuel-like illness that can mimic COVID-19. An infected person can develop severe dengue with bleeding and organ impairment. Severe dengue has a higher risk of death when not managed appropriately. The public health impact of managing a dengue outbreak combined with adjusting to the new normal amid COVID-19 pandemic will place a strain on the already stretched healthcare services. The direct economic cost of treatment, hospitalization and prevention as well as the indirect costs such as loss of productivity related to absence, disability or death and the effects on the tourism is of concern to an already fragile economy. The Ministry of Health and Wellness therefore solicits the usual cooperation of the public in dealing with this emerging public health threat. Health officials are urging all members of the public to take action and ensure that their surroundings are not breeding grounds for the mosquitoes. Cheryl Centromaine is the Deputy Chief Environmental Officer. Ensure screens are placed or repaired on windows and doors and all vents into your homes. Use insect repellents when both inside and outside the house to prevent mosquitoes from biting. It is important to use products according to directions on the bottle. Mosquitoes can breed even in the tiniest amounts of water. It is said that mosquito can breed in a teaspoon full of water under the right conditions. Once the adult can lay its eggs, it can breed there. Remove stagnant water around the house so mosquitoes cannot breed. Remember you are first in line to be bitten by mosquitoes that breed in your home, your own yard and garden. So make sure you be careful and read your property of breeding grounds. Change water in pet drinking bowls and flower vases at least once a week. And ensure that you rub or scrub these containers to remove any eggs that may be stuck to the side. Regularly clean roof gutters and now is the opportune time to do that and drain so water runs freely. Ms. Centromaine says water tanks and other containers must be tightly sealed. Mosquitoes can also breed in the containers where your toothbrush holders, your dish drainers. Any container that is capable of holding water will breed mosquitoes. Fogging is the last resort and it only targets the adult mosquito so we as a community need to play our role. The ministry has noted a concentration of dengue cases in the northern, central and eastern parts of the island. From the Government Information Service, Lisa Joseph reporting. Final preparations for the opening of the new academic year continued this week with training sessions for the staff of school cafeterias. The training programme is aimed at familiarising the food service personnel with the established COVID-19 protocols for safe operation. More from Jesse Laos. Demonstrations and instructional videos are some of the ways the Department of Education has been engaging school cafeteria operators on the preparation and handling of food. Well, in light of COVID-19, we are working along with the Ministry of Health, especially the Department of Environmental Health in training our cooks, our canteen operators in the proper food handling and food preparation practices in light of COVID-19 where they have to now have new protocols that govern the use of different types of foods and also the utensils and so on that are being used. How do they handle those things? So both the preparation and the handling of food. Brunez Koja is the school safety operator at the Department of Education. Training of school cafeteria operators, he says, is the latest of engagements with staff of all schools on island. As school is reopening, we are trying to ensure that all personnel, be it your teacher, principal, cook, janitor, whatever role you play in the school, we have provided some level of training sensitisation as it relates to the various protocols that relates to the different tasks that persons do at schools. And so we're just ensuring that as we do this training, we want to ensure that we provide a safe environment for all persons who will be coming to our schools. Earlier in June, school safety sessions in light of COVID-19 were held for ancillary staff and caretaker watchmen. School is scheduled to reopen on September 7th, 2020. For the Government Information Service, I am Jesse Leance reporting. The banana sector continues to benefit from technical and financial support from the Republic of China Taiwan. With banana production being negatively impacted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the governments of St. Lucia and the Republic of China Taiwan through the Banana Productivity and Improvement project continue to provide financial assistance to banana farmers in St. Lucia. The BPIP entails a full slate of projects and initiatives in the areas of pest control, education and sensitisation, among others, geared towards bringing banana production to an optimum level. The banana industry has an annual turnover in trade of approximately $20 million. Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Physical Planning, Natural Resources and Cooperatives, Barry Morphilicier highlighted the importance of the BPIP to the banana industry in St. Lucia. This project is about sustainable livelihoods and the impact on them. And with that project, what we have been able to do is provide income to these farmers and show there's an avenue of income. And that income supports the households. That adds at least 651 households. So you have an avenue for education, an avenue for health, an avenue for poster development and growth. And that's what it does. These farmers themselves employ persons, they employ persons and liberals who themselves have households. So the spinoff is more than 2,000 persons impacted by this project in the banana sector. Acting Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries, Physical Planning, Natural Resources and Cooperatives, Hon. Harold Stanislaus expressed gratitude to the government of the Republic of China, Taiwan for their continuous support. The ICDF came to our rescue and funded a restoration program which included one support for replanting of bananas, weed control, black cicatocca control, plant nutrition, construction of 47 packhouses for the farmers, 15 eating areas, 50 toilets, supplied 140 safety and protective gear, 1,000 record keeping books and 120 washing trays. These ambassadors are a few of the many successes and achievements for the past two and a half years under the BPIP project. And I must say, Ambassador, this wouldn't be possible without the cooperation, the commitment, the dedication of Mr. Mario Chen and Mr. Wu who have worked alongside our technical persons in the ministry, alongside Mr. Severe to achieve this level of success in the industry. Ambassador of the Republic of China, Taiwan to St. Lu Xia, His Excellency Peter Chen reaffirmed Taiwan's commitment to providing assistance to banana farmers in St. Lu Xia. As the global society suffers from economic devastation caused by the COVID-19, food security has become even more pressing issue. In light of this, Taiwan is committed to continue providing assistance to the Banana Productivity Improvement Project. By implementing the BPIP project, the government of St. Lu Xia and Taiwan also joined hands to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals which states that double the agricultural productivity and income of small-scale producers through productive resources and inputs, knowledge, financial services, markets and opportunities. The handing over ceremony took place on Tuesday, August 25, 2020 at the Ministry of Agriculture. 200 children in the constituency of Ancelary Canaries are receiving backpacks filled with school supplies for the new academic year. Minister for Tourism and Parliamentary Representative Hon. Dominic Fede began the distribution with a small ceremony. It is of profound importance to continue investing in education in addition to this simple ceremony here today. We also would have been doing a lot of work on the school plant to get it ready for the opening of school. I know hundreds of thousands are being spent to upgrade various schools in different parts of the constituency so that when our students return to school that they have an opportunity to be able to have the most pleasing and pleasant surroundings to do their studies. In addition, we have put computers in very strategic computer labs. We have got the Ancelary computer lab back on track. It's been closed for many years because it didn't have computers. We've also given support to the Rosocombine School with additional computers within the area. We made very important donations as well to parents in the form of our back to school effort to help with the purchasing of their school supplies. So today is really in keeping with that whole theme of helping our parents with the supplies that are necessary for back to school and for helping their kids to go to school. You would recall that for about five years running our government instituted the policy and we have doubled the school transportation subsidy. Our constituency benefited significantly from that. For the first time we would have had a bus coming for secondary school students between Canaries and Castries. Many parents would find this extremely difficult because it's over $5 each way and being faced with a transportation fee of over $10 a day is extremely difficult for a lot of the parents so we instituted a bus system. We've also instituted by doubling the school feeding program in various schools as part of our policy to help the education system and that is instituted in schools island wide. In other developments, the cultural and artistic fraternity is mourning the loss of former director of culture, Michael Orbitin. Minister with responsibility for culture and creative industries, Senator Honourable Fortuner Bell Rose says the contribution of Mike as he was affectionately known, goes beyond just the desk of the Cultural Foundation. He was a Calypsoan educator, writer and cultural activist. Senator Bell Rose says he was a mentor to many, a charismatic individual with a kind soul and a gentle spirit. In 1979 was our industrial reigning Calypso King with his feature song, Making Bread on the Dead. I think that is significant, but more importantly, the fact that he served St. Lucia as the director of culture. I recall in those years I myself too was in the Ministry of Culture when he worked in that department with Justin St. Helen myself, I think also Damien Greaves. We worked together with Mike Orbitin and we saw the beauty of a man, you know, gentle but yet a chance in terms of what he offered, you know, to the Department of Culture. So of course it is a deep regret. We really extend some second dolances to the family, in particular his wife Rose, who has been a great family friend, a great friend to St. Lucia, a great noose. And of course she noosed him. We were sure that she took good care of him because we monitored and checked on her with him as a department and we were very saddened by his loss. Mike Orbitin is also known for his album of quail poetry, Mighty Laughs, and a short story published in The Sun's Eye, an anthology of Caribbean writings. He is the author of Negma War, Freedom Fighter, a novel providing thought-provoking insight into the island's past and how it might inform its society today. Senator Belrose says St. Lucia will be poorer having lost one of its sons, who contributed selflessly to its development. This is NTN Nightly. Up next, Primus Hutchinson with the NTN novella quail. In an effort to ensure patient and first responder safety, the St. Lucia Fire Service has reviewed its patient transfer procedures, especially for patients with respiratory distress. Face masks will be provided. At no time during transportation should the face mask be removed. Please be patient and cooperative during this time to ensure you receive the best possible care while keeping our first responders safe. Welcome back. We join Primus Hutchinson for the NTN novella quail. This is Primus Hutchinson. This time, I have welcomed the appointment of the new ambassadors of goodwill. For the new ambassadors of goodwill, it is an opportunity for development, transformation, social and economic situations and also to help develop the skills of men here in all sectors of creation and in the other sectors that you can support. Mainly, music, sports, music, sports, creativity and so on. All your ambassadors of goodwill are mainly to serve the ignore-the-popularity to help others to settle their inability to find opportunities to advance their goals. The Ministry of Business Responsibility for Industry and Industry of Creative Affairs, Senator Honorable Fortuna Belrose, declared that this is what Claudia Edward Ladner did for the pleasure of the year. Claudia, I have established a charitable organization to assist the students to find their own way to make studies and to help teachers. International artists have also created a chance for the students to apply for good education at school and have also created a chance for the primary school, Ave Maria, which has also created a chance for the secondary school, among other projects. According to the Minister Belrose, the Government will play and appreciate the time that Claudia decided to accept this responsibility so that the great experience and capability of the artist can be as much as possible to help them settle here, so that they can help them settle here to develop their capability for the international experience. That's it, Claudia. If we start from an old age to make plenty of money that is comfortable for those who are sick, because of this, Claudia is here for Sharon Williams to approach the Minister of Education to start her school career. She has found a good opportunity for the Minister of Education to help the industry to create a culture so that Claudia can help the people of the country to find a place to perform for the international community. I would like to thank Claudia and the orchestra for making a successful Chinese music, particularly in Thailand and also for celebrating jazz this week. I would like to thank them for the opportunity to help the Government to settle here, so that they can help the people of the country to complete their contributions. Claudia also received a diplomatic pass from the Cabinet of Ministers to help the people of the country to start their career. For the 9th of September, the Minister of Education has placed more attention to this construction in a way of security protection. The Minister of Education Michelle Charles explained to me that she is trying to address all the needs of this school. But for the 9th of September, the Minister of Education asked me to help the people of the country to complete their contributions to the project. I would like to thank the Minister of Education and the public for the opportunity to help the community to complete their contributions. I would like to thank the Ministry of Education for the opportunity Washrooms. So let's see Mama Eila via they call to say. Say. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. nearly called. My other product is Janiya Hodgeman Place to start 20 products in Wichita Karebla, Boffinisman, Masala. That's it. Forest Springs, Kika Produce, Glow Natural, I found 8 products. For businesses that are native to the product, it was possible to export this product. It was a pleasure for me to negotiate. The opportunity to do business here in Wichita Karebla, was the best year of the year. It was an excellent success for Forest Springs, Kika Produce, but also for the research that has been done, and technical assistance for Forest Springs. The opportunity to start a business in Wichita Karebla, was the best year of the year for the research that has been done, and the best year of the year for the development of forest springs. The second batch was the first batch that was done in Wichita Karebla in September. The opportunity for Forest Springs to start a business in Wichita Karebla, was the best year of the year for the development of forest springs. In the palm justify, all the research on forests, would be supported by the health care authorities. That brings us to the end of NTN Nightly. Join us next time at 7pm with a repeat at 7am. You can also catch up with us any time on the Saint Lucia Government Facebook page or on our YouTube channel. I am Anicia Antoine.