Gov’t ensuring Barbados in full state of readiness

Government is making sure that Barbados is in the fullest possible state of readiness for any COVID-19 spikes.

This assurance came from Attorney General Dale Marshall, in response to a question during Saturday’s COVID-19 Update and Press Conference.

Marshall told his audience: “I can say that the stance of the Cabinet COVID Subcommittee and…the Ministry of Health is to ensure that we are prepared for any eventuality.  And every meeting that we’ve had, we’ve been discussing, if this, then what.

“We paid a great deal of attention in today’s meeting to trying to determine what facilities we have, whether they are adequate and what further facilities we should have in the pipeline….  As a member of the COVID subcommittee, I can say to you that these matters are absolutely always under review, and we are making sure that Barbados is in the fullest possible state of readiness for any eventuality as far as COVID spikes go.”

The Attorney General pointed out that some Barbadians were continuing to be “scofflaws” with regard to following the directives.  He surmised that this irresponsible behaviour then puts a greater strain on the national resources because the police have to stop dealing with their matters to go and back up the COVID-19 Monitoring Unit.

He commended the employees of the COVID-19 Monitoring Unit for their work, saying they were doing “a marvelous job” in the circumstances, and at great personal risk to themselves.

Meanwhile, when asked if the penalty in the directive required changing since some persons were not following the protocols, Marshall noted that the maximum penalty of $50,000, or imprisonment for one year, was significant, and there was no reason, at this point, to consider increasing it.

With regard to a question about incentivising persons to take the vaccines, the Attorney General said that issue had not been given any specific consideration by the subcommittee.

He continued: “For us, being vaccinated means keeping our businesses open, keeping our people healthy and being able to function as a whole, properly running country.”