 Stands and daughters of Saint Lucia, wherever you may roam, happy new year. This is my first opportunity as Prime Minister to personally extend the best wishes to you and your family for 2022. We all want 2022 to be a brighter, happier, healthier year for ourselves, family and country. This year is pregnant with opportunities for our country. The people of Saint Lucia vote for a substantial mandate through the democratic process, a new slate of men and women to plot a different political, economic, social and national agenda for our country. As a country, you must ensure that this opportunity given by the majority of the people creates an agenda of transformation of our country. The year 2021 saw the COVID virus mutate into several variants. These variants created an atmosphere of illness, fear, loneliness, social economic despair brought on by the restrictions and protocols that hindered our natural tendencies to be social human beings. Now we enter 2022, a fifth wave is almost inevitable as other countries experience rapid spikes due to the American virus. Indeed 2021 was very difficult and challenging for our country given the negative effects of the pandemic on the health sector in particular and the entire economy as a whole. Every tragic was the death and grief felt by families and friends on the death of their loved ones. We extend deepest condolences to these families.