 Coming to you from our GIS Studios, I am Manisha Antoine and this is your Midday News Brief. Prudent fiscal management by the Government of St. Lucia has resulted in a better budget outing than anticipated. Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, the Honourable Alan Shastney, in delivering the Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure 2019-2020 on Wednesday, April 10 reported that a lower budget deficit of $68.3 million was achieved compared to the $163.92 million recorded in the Estimates of 2018-2019. Honourable Shastney explained that this was due to the combined effort of higher than anticipated revenue and underspending of the budget. A surplus of $37.3 million was realised from the Citizenship by Investment Donation Receipts. Tax receipts registered an increase of 5.17% above the last financial year. Non-tax receipts amassed $69.26 million, a 10.1% increase. Meantime, the bulk of Government's capital allocation is geared towards improvements in the agricultural production, infrastructural development, sports infrastructure, health and education. $79.8 million or 32.3% of the total development budget is proposed for allocation to the Department of Infrastructure, Ports and Energy, which will cater for ongoing roads, bridges and maintenance and rehabilitation projects. Government has also allocated $7.8 million in additional resources to continue ongoing projects under the Department of Agriculture, which includes the Water Supply Redevelopment Projects in Viewfort and Dennery. A proposed sum of $20.6 million has also been allocated to the Department of Sports to cater for major improvements to spotting facilities around the island. The Department of Health and Wellness has received confirmation of the Association of H1N1 Influenza in one of the recent respiratory-related deaths among males. This confirmation was received from the laboratory at the Caribbean Public Health Agency CAFA in Trinidad. H1N1 Influenza or Swine Flu has also been confirmed in other persons who only developed mild flu-like illness and recovered completely with treatment. Persons with flu symptoms should avoid crowded places in an effort to decrease the transmission to others. The flu vaccine, which is available free of charge at all wellness centres, can also assist in flu prevention. This has been your media news brief. Thank you for watching.