St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves is appealing to Vincentians to take the COVID-19 vaccine, saying, “It is not inconceivable that what is happening in Grenada could happen here”.
Speaking on state radio, Gonsalves said he is not scaremongering; the Caribbean nation recorded 154 new COVID infections in four days.
On Thursday, the country’s Minister of Finance Camilo Gonsalves reported another COVID-19 death in the constituency he represents, effectively bringing the COVID-19 death toll to 14.
The Prime Minister said the positivity rate was going up and stated that if the upward trend continues consistently above five per cent, the reopening of schools on the island set for 4 October may have to take on varying forms.
“Particular regimes may have to be taken for school, including a blended approach to education”. Gonsalves said.
Gonsalves says Grenada at the beginning of August was under ten active cases and is now over 2,000.
According to the Health Officials on Grenada, as of 16 September 2021, there were 2,210 active cases and 43 deaths recorded since the start of the pandemic.
Gonsalves continued;
“There has been an uptick in COVID-19 cases on Union Island and in Canouan. These islands are South of mainland St Vincent and heavily tourism-dependent”.
“While it is not necessarily connected to persons coming over, because of the movement of people in the Southern Grenadines, and the link between Carriacou, Petite Martinique and Grenada, there is likely to be an uptick.
However, special arrangements may have to be put in place concerning the Southern Grenadines”.
The Caribbean nation Prime Minister said given the many challenges the island faces, the best tool in the toolbox against COVID-19 needs to be utilised.
“The best tool is the vaccine. Some people want to take horse medicine for worms but don’t want to take the vaccine approved by the WHO, and it is bizarre”.
Gonsalves was referring to the controversial drug Ivermectin. The WHO current evidence on the use of Ivermectin to treat COVID-19 patients is inconclusive.
Until more data is available, WHO recommends that the drug only be used within clinical trials.
This recommendation, which applies to patients with COVID-19 of any disease severity, is now part of WHO’s guidelines on COVID-19 treatments.
St Vincent and the Grenadines have already reported several COVID-19 variants, including Gamma, Delta and Mu.
