 Welcome to NTN Nightly, I am General Norvel. This edition, Top Stories. The Ministry of Health and Wellness increases its arsenal as part of its response to increased COVID-19 cases. Saint Lucia's Prime Minister addresses the World Economic Forum's The Davos Agenda on behalf of SIDS. And friendly governments continue to support Saint Lucia's fight against COVID-19. The Ministry of Health and Wellness is increasing its arsenal to better respond to the increase in COVID-19 cases on Ireland. Speaking during a press conference held on Wednesday, Medical Director of the Owen King EU Hospital and Respiratory Hospital, Dr Alicia Eugene Ford, indicated that the bed capacity has been increased at the Respiratory Hospital. We also have the rest of the beds, I think we had 44 beds, if I remember clearly, 44 beds we had pending, and this has been handed over to us about two weeks ago. So now we're looking at a bed capacity of 126 beds at the Respiratory Hospital. And of course we have divisions of negative, positive and suspect cases, we have to separate them. We also have a particular ward for TB because we do not want to make our TB cases, which are respiratory cases with COVID-19 cases. So that is a separation that is very much important. The adoption of the New World Health Organization's CDC guidelines for discharging, which was released on January 18, 2021, the Medical Director noted, allows for patients to spend less time in isolation, increasing the availability of beds. So you realize that persons actually spend less time in the hospital or isolated, whether it's at home or in the hospital. Of course WHO would have made these changes supported by science. So we're looking at for symptomatic patients, that's for COVID-19 patients, we're looking at 10 days after the onset of symptoms, plus at least three days without symptoms and that would include symptoms like fever and also without respiratory symptoms. And for asymptomatic patients, that's for COVID-19, 10 days after you've gotten the positive COVID-19 test. I need to make it clear that even though persons are clear for COVID-19, doesn't mean that they may not need to stay more time in hospital because persons don't only come for COVID-19, you may have a patient who came in who has COVID-19, a positive test or feeling unwell, but they do have other comorbidities. So once we have collected this person and we've told them that they're no longer COVID-19 positive, we would have to transfer that person to OKUH for them to be managed for the other comorbidities because we cannot discharge you until you're actually stable to go out. The human capacity within the hospitals is to be increased as well. In addition to the extra beds, you'd obviously need extra staffing and then arrangements are already being made to bring in extra nurses, extra physicians, the clinical support staff, the porters, the domestics, all of these are in, it's happening already in the pipeline. So it's a situation where changes are being made slowly to accommodate the increase in patients that are coming in. Medical Director Dr Alicia Eugene Ford. The Ministry of Health and Wellness received confirmation of 16 new cases of COVID-19 from the Israel Long Laboratory on Wednesday, January 27, 2021. This is from a batch of 258 samples which were tested. This brings the total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 diagnosed in country to date to 1029. All 60 cases are St. Lucia Nationals who range in age from 4 to 76 years. They are from the castries Souffre, Anselare, Viewfort, Grosile, Denry, Barbonneau, Niko, and Schroesel districts. All of these individuals were seen at community-based respiratory clinics where they were assessed and tested for COVID-19. As per protocol, they were placed in quarantine by healthcare practitioners while awaiting their COVID-19 test results. Arrangements have since been made to move these individuals into isolation. The contact tracing team is undertaking investigations to identify the contacts of these confirmed cases. Chief Medical Officer in the Ministry of Health and Wellness, Dr Sharon Belmar George, during a press conference explained that part of the ministry's response to the increase in cases of COVID-19 is the commissioning of two new facilities. We are noting the increases in cases and we are adjusting the system to manage the patients in a safe way and to continue in terms of the surveillance within the communities and also to contain. One of the things I forgot to indicate that later this week will also be including two other hotels as isolation and also as quarantine units to assist us in containment and isolation of persons. Once this starts we will provide you with that information but we are already preparing to start off with two new facilities to assist us to manage the increases. The Ministry of Health and Wellness on Wednesday also received confirmation of the recovery of 30 individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 bringing the total number of active cases in country to date to 491. As at news time one of the active cases is in critical care at the respiratory hospital and all of the others are stable. Economic recovery in small island developing states will require not only greater cooperation from international financial institutions but also increased resourcefulness of seeds themselves. Prime Minister the Honourable Alan Shasne conveyed these sentiments during an online panel of the World Economic Forum's The Davos Agenda on Wednesday. Discussion during the events surrounded capitalizing on opportunities to reset the economic system and building one that incentivizes sustainable and economic growth with strong private sector participation. Details in this report. We're going to have to now do things for ourselves to show the rest of the world that we are ready. Prime Minister Hon. Alan Shasne calls for strengthened resolve of small island developing states and a unified approach in managing similar economic development hurdles. While emphasizing the need for international financial agencies to better accommodate seeds inflicted by external shocks the nation leader believes these same affected countries must take initiative. His suggestions include cost-effective diplomacy and building new revenue streams for a sync fund of free capital to manage such crises. That's something that's on us, right? I think that the first discipline to be able to develop the reserve funds whether it's on a national basis or on a regional integration so we have the OECS or we have CARICOM or we have the wider body of seeds where we're pooling monies together that we can help ourselves out. But certainly integration is critical and the fight always is sovereignty. So let's take foreign affairs as an example. Everybody wants to have their own foreign office in New York, their own foreign office in London, their own foreign office in Washington D.C. But as the time comes for us to now look at how we can share that cost. The Prime Minister adds that SIDS participation within international agencies can also be consolidated at reduced cost and greater efficiency. Honourable Shasne, headlining a special panel of the World Economic Forum's Davos Agenda 2021 this week was supported in this view by panellist Pacific Islands official Zarak Khan. As the Prime Minister said, the first thing we're trying to do is help ourselves. So the Pacific what we're doing is we're setting up an innovative financing facility called the Pacific Resilience Facility. We're working with our development partners to develop this facility and also link up with investment managers. We're looking at a 1.5 billion US dollar facility that can support community level projects in the Pacific Island countries, particularly in terms of building resilience, focusing on adaptation. The leaders maintain the need for a concurrent review of international financial systems to appropriately cater to SIDS, particularly as the pandemic has exacerbated their debt crisis created by natural disasters, among other unexpected shocks. With the onset of COVID-19 and the pandemic, our debt to GDP ratio went from about 46% to 81% in terms of borrowings. And so we very much subscribed to the thoughts of the Honourable Prime Minister in the sense that it appears that the multilateral finance institutions and the way that the global financing landscape is structured at the moment, it does not tailor to the needs of small island developing states. I think there needs to be a sit-down to re-engineer how we're going to treat small island developing states in the global context. And that would be with the IMF, the World Bank, the UN, and certainly within Brenton Woods because it's an impossible task. But yet there is a lot that we're contributing to the development of the world. Like other SIDS dependent on tourism, St. Lucia's gross domestic product declined due to effects of the pandemic. In an eight-month span, the island's GDP went from 59% to 85%, worsening its debt crisis. For the Government Information Service, I am Jesse Layance reporting. This is NTIA Nightly. When we come back, friendly governments continue to support St. Lucia's fight against COVID-19. Stay with us. Remember, sections of the Animals Act 2005 states, three animals will be seized and put in a pound by authorized persons. Owners will be liable to a fine of $5,000 or two years' imprisonment or both. Save innocent animals. Save human lives and property. A message from the Department of Agriculture. Welcome back. Police officers attached to the Grosile police station have formally arrested and charged a female in relation to alleged breaches of the COVID-19 protocols. About 11 a.m. on Wednesday, January 27, 2021, at Pigeon Island, Grosile, a female non-national was approached by peace officers COVID Wardens after they observed that she was not adhering to the mask-wearing requirement in a public place. The officers reported that she was cautioned to do so but refused, proceeding to her explicives at them. She was taken into custody for refusal to adhere to the enacted laws. The female in question has been identified as Joanna Kovolstow, a 30-year-old national of Finland, residing in Grosile's inclusion. She has been charged with the offences of swearing or using abusive or indecent language in public place, contrary to Section 508 of the Criminal Code, Chapter 3.01 of the revised laws of St. Lucia, 2013, and failing to wear a mask or suitable covering over the nose or mouth in public, contrary to Section 21A1 of COVID-19 Prevention and Control Act No. 9 of 2020. She is currently in police custody awaiting a bill herring. The Royal St. Lucia Police Force wishes to continue to encourage persons to adhere to the regulations as it continues to fight against COVID-19. The RSLPF remains resolute in its commitment to creating a safer environment for all people in St. Lucia. The Government of Taiwan continues to support St. Lucia in its efforts to combat the spread of COVID-19. The Government of Taiwan continues to support efforts of controlling the spread of COVID-19 in St. Lucia. Their recent contribution is the donation of 14,500 COVID-19 antigen rapid tests. The donation was presented to the Government of St. Lucia by His Excellency Peter Chen. The Taiwanese ambassador to St. Lucia expressed pleasure on behalf of the Government of Taiwan to continue to assist in strengthening St. Lucia's defenses against the pandemic. I'm also proud to announce that these rapid test kits were donated by a Taiwanese biotech company, ThaiDoc Technology Corporation, and these high-performance test kits were developed in collaboration with the top Taiwanese research institution, Academia Seneca. Just as President Tsai Ing-wen said, 2020 was a difficult year for so many around the world. But I'm honored that Taiwan could lend a hand in ways big and small. The Minister for Health, Senator Hon. Mary Isaac says she's grateful to the Government of Taiwan for their continued support, especially in the fight against and the control of the coronavirus. As you have heard, we have the second strain here in St. Lucia, and we have to be even more vigilant than we were before. We have already opened up so that other healthcare facilities can come on board and assist us in this fight. And I believe that these test kits will go a long way in assisting the entire country to speed up the process in terms of testing for us to come up with faster results to know quicker who is positive so that we can then isolate people, put people in quarantine and hopefully get this COVID-19 back under control. While reflecting on and expressing appreciation for Taiwan's continuous contributions to St. Lucia, the Prime Minister Hon. Alan Chastney says Taiwan has shown by example of what they've done in their country that COVID-19 can be defeated. He made an appeal to the citizens of St. Lucia to protect the vulnerable people in our society. If you're not going to do it for anyone else, keep a picture of somebody you love in your mind. And when you think it's a bit difficult to put your face mask on, do it. When you think it's over burdensome to wash your hands, do it. When you want to hug and kiss somebody, stay away and practice the social distancing. These are the sacrifices that we have to make. We must go through some pain to get some gain. So again, I want to remind everyone we are in a war, a war that requires all of us to participate. And again, I want to thank the government and the people of Taiwan, in particular President Tsai for her continued unwavering support to the development of our country. The Prime Minister highlights the rapid test kits will be incorporated with the PCR tests currently being done on island in the best way to build a stronger defense against the COVID-19 virus. From the Government Information Service, Helma DiMarc reporting. The Ministry of Health and Wellness guides the public that anyone who has had a COVID-19 rapid antigen test and receives a positive test result must have a PCR COVID-19 test to confirm this result. PCR testing for COVID-19 is available at the five respiratory clinics free of charge. This is in keeping with the national testing protocol for COVID-19 and to allow for the bridging into care of anyone diagnosed with this virus. The support of the public is being requested to ensure adherence to these guidelines to facilitate care and treatment to anyone who may be affected. And that brings us to the end of NTN Nightly. Join us next time at 7 p.m. with a repeat at 7 a.m. You can also catch up with us anytime on the St Lucia Government Facebook page or YouTube channel. I am Janelle Norville.