A former International Monetary Fund (IMF) official has cautioned Barbados about the need to have contingency plans for the proposed reopening of schools later this month, as COVID-19 infections jump in some neighbouring countries.
Dennis Jones, a Jamaican economist who was once based in Barbados, said while the island has managed COVID-19 cases well and has enjoyed a low infection rate, things could turn suddenly, as was the case in his homeland.
Jones, who joined an online panel discussion hosted by the Holy Trinity Chapel in St Philip on the topic of reopening schools during the pandemic, said the situation in Jamaica deteriorated rapidly after it appeared as though things were under control.
“We have seen in Jamaica a rapid escalation in the spread of the virus, in terms of numbers . . . in terms of the number of communities affected, the number of persons who have become critically ill, the number of people who are being hospitalized, and a sharp reduction in the rate of people who are recovering,” he highlighted.
His comments followed that of fellow panellist and Acting Chief Education Officer Joy Adamson, who told participants at the Wednesday night discussion: “ We have no community spread at this time and therefore we cannot afford to keep ourselves in a bubble and not allow the children, especially the vulnerable ones, [to remain out of school].”
However, Jones told the online discussion: “Going back to the middle of June and early July, [Jamaica] had a recovery rate of nearly 80 per cent and our numbers were trending up towards 700 to 800. Our numbers as of yesterday went to 2 500. Our numbers have doubled in three weeks. That is the same situation that has happened in The Bahamas where they doubled in three weeks.
“So, though in Barbados you may have a situation where you don’t have community spread and everything seems calm, if you look carefully at what’s happening with the virus across the world, you will see that it has a cycle and most countries have now gone into a second cycle where, having flattened the curve for some weeks and months in the case of New Zealand, you now see an uptick. What that does as far as education is concerned . . . is that you are getting this uptick at a time when you’ve got that big volume of people who are likely to be either carriers or spreaders,” he added.
Jones, who spent three years working in Barbados, cautioned that no matter how workable plans for school reopening appeared, contingency planning was absolutely necessary.
“Whatever your situation is now, you have got to be sure that your contingency plan is clear because you can find that within a day or two or a week, your reopening has to be shut down really quickly. . . . And then you end up going backwards and you’ve got parents who thought they were going to be free of their children now having to think about child care and other things. There are a lot of moving parts and it can become chaotic and very disruptive,” he warned. (IMC1)
