 Welcome to NTM Nightly. I am Jesse Leance. This edition's top stories, adherence to protocols, help health officials detect a new case of COVID-19. Early childhood centres resume full operation, vending COVID-19 approval, and employees of the St. Lucia Marketing Board gain valuable training in food safety. On Tuesday, September 8th, 2020, St. Lucia recorded a new case of COVID-19. The individual is a 27-year-old male visitor who arrived in St. Lucia on Sunday, September 6th, 2020. Chief Medical Officer Dr Sharon Belmar George says the adherence to the established protocols caused health officials to order the retesting of the visitor. On arrival, he went through the necessary screening and proceeded to a COVID-19 approved accommodation. However, it should be noted that where health authorities have reason to require additional testing in country, this is undertaken, as obtained with this traveller. Within our national protocol for visitors and nationals, there is consideration for retesting. The Ministry of Health and Wellness has commenced contact tracing from last night, and this is continued into today to ensure that all contacts are identified and the required interventions will be undertaken to manage the risk of exposure. The Ministry of Health, we are working closely with the hotel's management to ensure that all of the measures are in place to minimize transmission to hotel workers and to guests. We provide further information on the progress of this case as our reports come in. Dr Belmar George reminds the public that the opening of the economy presents the risk of COVID-19 cases. As most sectors open and restrictions are reduced, the public is advised to take personal responsibility to protect themselves, their families and the public in general from exposure to the COVID-19 virus. The public is also advised that protocols are still in place. These include the use of face masks in public and maintaining the recommended six foot physical distance guidelines. That was Chief Medical Officer Dr. Sharon Belmar George. The Salution Bureau of Standards, along with the manufacturer of real refined coconut oil and magic refined coconut oil, have advised of the withdrawal of certain batches of coconut oil which are non-compliant with the compulsory national standard SLNS-25 2017 specification for coconut oil. This withdrawal affects all real refined coconut oil which carries the batch number codes BN037, BN039 and BN040, all magic refined coconut oil which carries the codes BN030, BN036, BN037 and BN040 and any product which may have an illegible code. Customers are advised not to consume the affected products bearing the codes. The Coconut Factory Provost Foods is cooperating fully with the Bureau of Standards in resolving all concerns relating to this matter. The company has instructed all outlets which carry the brand to remove the affected batch of oil from their shelves. Distribution of new batches of the oil has ceased until full inspection and certification by the St. Lucia Bureau of Standards. The company is working with the Bureau to determine the definitive cause of the problem and once the Bureau's assessment process is complete, a full statement will be released to the public on the status of the company's coconut oil. The Department of Education has permitted all early childhood centres to resume their operations pending final approval of their COVID-19 response plans by the Environmental Health Unit. We have a report on that update and others from the Ministry of Education. In acknowledging concerns over the early childhood centres in the COVID-19 environment, Chief Education Officer Dr Fiona Philip Meyer has disclosed that all daycares and preschools with application spending at the Environmental Health Department have been granted provisional permission to reopen. Well I was pleased yesterday to have received an email where provisional approval had been given to many of our schools. Earlier this about two weeks ago we spoke about the process with Environmental Health coming in to inspect the schools, to inspect the early childhood centres, noting that the majority of our early childhood centres are private entities and so even the physical structure where they are, some of them are down since a particular home, all of them have structures, they may be in a larger building, so all of that have been taken into consideration. Dr Philip Meyer shows that this provisional approval was granted based on the early childhood centre plans to mitigate COVID-19 risk. They have actually sent in all of their plans, so all of the ones that have gotten approval, they've sent in their plans and Environmental Health is constantly going out. We can appreciate that the number of centres that they have but based on their plans and based on the structures presented including the hand washing stations, you know, the sanitising, the ratio of adults to children, they have been given approval to reopen. A couple days into the new school term Dr Philip Meyer says she has been giving school administrators the opportunity and space to fit into the new routine. I was purposeful in my interaction with educators yesterday and early today because I really wanted a sense of calm. I think and I appreciate that this is a new situation for everyone, very different, but I really wanted the positive energy and allowing the educators, the administrators to settle in. I've been in constant contact with the education officers, with some of our principals and we are keenly aware of what's happening on the ground. I have visited schools, I have not gone in, I have watched them from a distance because I wanted to give them that space to be able to really settle. The reports are good. Much to her satisfaction, rehabilitation work at schools with delayed openings have progressed as scheduled. The Monropo, Paseus combined, Dennery Primary and Larissus combined schools had delayed openings on Wednesday, September 9th and the Interpo secondary, Moshi combined and Lezitan combined schools will reopen on Monday, September 14th. For the Government Information Service, I am Jesse Leance reporting. Employees of the St. Lucia Marketing Board have gained valuable training in food safety at the close of a Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point program. The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Physical Planning, Natural Resources and Cooperatives hosted a closing ceremony for staff of the newly remodeled Pack House at the Marketing Board who completed the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points, HAASAP training. The training that was held for a duration of six weeks is an international standard for food safety which seeks to improve the production of agricultural produce in St. Lucia. The training forms part of a collaborative effort with the Taiwan Technical Mission and ICA and falls under the enhancement of the efficiency of production, distribution supply chains in the fruits and vegetables sector project with the overall aim of reducing the food import bill. Adeline Yurovik, Project Coordinator of the Seven Crops Project, congratulated the staff on a job well done. I'm very pleased by the feedback I have been hearing so far for the time of the training and it's very encouraging. And if you look around you can see the many posters which is testament to the different knowledge that has been imparted from our facilitator Mr. Edmund. I encourage you to put everything you learn into practice and to keep on the same energy and the same enthusiasm that you've got during the time of the training and congratulations to all the graduates on a job very well done. Head of the Taiwan Technical Mission in St. Lucia, Mario Chen, expressed gratitude to the participants of the HASAP training. Chen noted that the initiative is geared towards ensuring that local crops are of the highest quality. We have to make sure that every very step, the full risk is very small so that here is no risk from e-local crops from the marketing board. The person who will train will monitor this at very step. In addition to this training the Taiwan Technical Mission has begun providing the marketing board with the packaging materials that have a seed cell to increase. As we all know this increase goes back directly to the farmers as they mend for their crops. This training is only the first step in becoming HASAP certified. Greg Rawlins, representative of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture, ICA in the Eastern Caribbean states, explained that ICA will continue to work with the marketing board to improve the standards and quality of produce. We are now seeking to see how we can build upon the very work that's already been done and we will therefore be working with the Solution Marketing Board. We've already had very constructed discussions with them. We'll be preparing the standard operating procedures for the House so that not only would you have been exposed to training that allows you to understand the principles of food safety and handling produce and so on but you would have standard operating procedures for the House that would guide and ensure that you adhere to the standards that have been established. The Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points, HASAP training, was held on Friday, September 4th, 2020. From the Government Information Service, I am Anisia Antoine reporting. The Government of St Lucia, along with several partners and donor agencies, have launched the Enabling Gender Responsive Disaster Recovery, Climate and Environmental Resilience in the Caribbean project, more commonly referred to as the Engender Project. We'll get the details in this report. One of the outputs of the project is the repurposing of US $100,000 to benefit women impacted by COVID-19. During the press launch at the studios of the Government Information Service, Director of Gender Relations, Miss Janie Joseph, described it as one of the few bright, beautiful moments in this time of much uncertainty and despair brought on by the economic and social impacts of the global COVID pandemic. This, as she said, thank you to the partners and donors. We are here to say thank you and to raise awareness of an initiative that adds to the numerous strides that the Government of St Lucia has made in its COVID-19 response. You will hear how St Lucia has approached the COVID response under this project, and you will appreciate why gender responsive planning changes outcomes and better enable us to achieve our developmental goal of leaving no one behind. In delivering the opening remarks, Honorable Guy Joseph, Minister for Economic Development, Housing, Urban Renewal, Transport and Civil Aviation reflected on the impact that COVID has had on the economy and unemployment, with women in particular being the most affected. And talking about the unemployment situation brought about by COVID, our women would be the most impacted within that sector. Because of the number of persons employed in the jobs that are most affected, let's take the tourism sector as an example with all of our hotels closed. The number of parents, women, single mothers whose only means of income was through the tourism industry, those who have been vendors for all their lives, taking care of their family, all have been impacted. While St Lucia is focused on a very strong program of construction activity to help mitigate against the full impact of unemployment, we see that the women of this country would be the ones most impacted because they are least involved in the construction sector. And that is why I believe that this program today is one that is very vital, though it is targeted to a limited number of women in the society, but it is significant. Honourable Gail Rigabet, the Minister of Responsibility for Gender Relations, the department coordinating the process gave us a noxious of engender, which through this initiative will see 75 women receive income support, 8,000 masks for frontline workers distributed and psychological first aid training for 100 frontline workers. Through the government of St Lucia, the engender funded COVID-19 response has allocated 100,000 US dollars to support the implementation of income supplemental initiatives which will benefit women in the informal sector, women farmers and women living with disabilities. Assistance will also be provided to activities that tackle gender-based violence, such as online training in psychological first aid for essential workers, and the procurement and distribution of personal protective equipment to frontline workers who provide aid to women. The Canadian High Commission Barbados representative Steve Jautima had special commendations for the government of St Lucia. I do want to say a special thanks and how grateful I am to see the enormous commitment of the government of St Lucia in having three ministers present as well as high-level officials and civil society joining in person and online that really shows the level of commitment and ownership over these activities and of course the partnership with other donors and with the multilateral system and our great colleagues in the UN. The process for selection of persons who qualify for assistance was done through the Ministry of Equity, Social Justice, Local Government and Empowerment. Minister the Honourable Leonard Spider Montoot indicated that working with a national coordinating team allowed his department to identify eligible persons through agencies such as the Women Support Shelter, the Family Court, the Welfare Service Unit, the National Council of and for Persons with Disabilities and the Network of Rural Women Producers. The government of St Lucia applauded the Canadian government for the understanding of the increased vulnerability of the small island developing states of the Caribbean, including St Lucia, to bring practical, tangible benefits for the most vulnerable impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. From the Government Information Service, Rojvara Lawrence reporting. The OECS Commission and USAID through the Juvenile Justice Reform Project JJRP has implemented a capacity building intervention at the Boyce Training Centre in cinematography. Dove Productions Limited is the facilitator of the training program. The JJRP cinematography intervention will engage 12 boys at the Boyce Training Centre in various techniques of videography. This is an important step towards the social inclusion of a vulnerable community by way of improving their resilience through skill development. The Juvenile Justice Reform Program has been implemented in the region for over a decade starting in 2008 with phase one and continuing with phase two in October 2016. JJRP focuses on three components, diversion, rehabilitation and integration of children in conflict with the law. The project is being implemented in the six OECS independent member states, that is Antigua and Barbura, St Kitts and Nevis, Dominica, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines. Up next we have a primus Hutchinson with the NTN Nouvelle Aquian. Cut them loose. The anxieties. The worries. Open up to possibilities. Accept the uncertainties and cut them loose. The bitterness. The hopelessness. Plant a seed of hope in your mind. It will grow and flourish in time. Hold on a little longer. Life encourages you to grow. You have so much to offer. Look, tomorrow is waiting to say hello. Don't give up on yourself. Instead, reach out for help. Perhaps it's time to reach out to someone. Call the Health Helpline 203 toll free any time to speak to a professional. Welcome back. We now join Primus Hutchinson for the NTN Nouvelle Aquian. It's a great place. This is the school. The school is very clean. It's very small. It's easy to prepare. It's a good place to eat. It's a special way for the school for the teachers. It's a great place. It's a great school. It's a great place. It's a great place. It was easier to prepare your first English language than your previous language. I heard a lot of people go to the forest to do their homework. To start the workshop, Peck's Up places scenes for those who can't sign at the school. You have to clean up the fields quickly so that colleges can sanitize and clean their hands. We also want to remind our parents to do their best to make sure that they follow all these protocols. We advise them to start these restrictions on their own. We have a lot of schools that we want to visit. We have a lot of schools that we want to visit. We have Tirochet, Bexon, ABI, SDA, Hudson, and Clacomingo. The Ministry of Economic Development also told us that we need to bring the coronavirus to another location so that we can bring it to a different situation. In Japan, there are 7 national schools that have the highest level of health. There is a certain level of health that would be in place in the country to address all the problems in plays in the face of a disease in the world. So, the organization needs to be more designed to be able to deal with this type of situation. The organization needs to have a different equipment such as a computer, a system for Video Young We have made videos to help with the organization's capability to function. For this reason, the officers who are engaged in the organization can operate more easily after that. And then, the equipment that is in place, and that is why we have to move the assets to this place. Let's talk about COVID-19. We have an organization that can operate because there is a place that is open to continue communication connections and that is why we have to work with the officers who are engaged in the organization. And this is why we have to make videos to make it possible to facilitate more collaboration and this is why we have to analyze the work that is being done. And this is why we have to make it possible to support the information that is available to the public. We have to work with the officers who are engaged in the organization. And this is why we have to make videos to help the organization. And this is why we have to work with the officers who are engaged in the organization. Thank you for joining us for now, but do stay tuned for more NTN programming.