‘Don’t get complacent during Christmas’

Barbadians are being urged not to become complacent during the Christmas season.

Minister of Health and Wellness, Lt Col Jeffrey Bostic, made the plea while accepting a new vehicle on behalf of the Ministry from the Pan American Health Organization on Friday.

He stressed the importance of continuing to follow the COVID-19 protocols in place, which include the wearing of masks, social distancing and hand sanitising.

“As the Christmas season approaches, I urge everyone not to let down their guard; do not let down the guard.  We get too many examples of what will happen across this region and the globe, if we let down our guard.

“So, enjoy Christmas when it comes, but enjoy Christmas, keeping in the back of your mind that it is Christmas in a COVID-19 environment, and so it requires responding appropriately and accordingly…. And so, I would like to ask Barbadians and those who reside here who are not Barbadians to continue to observe the protocols, because that is very, very important,” Minister Bostic appealed.

Speaking on the country’s overall efforts to date, he pointed out that Government had been “putting every effort in, and not being complacent at all, in terms of how we fight this virus, and even with the acquisition of the vaccine, this is not going to stop us from fighting the way we are fighting.

“Because an all-out effort is needed [and] we have to make sure that Barbadians and the residents of Barbados can live as normal a life as possible, and that is within our grasp within our hands within our capacity to be able to do.”

Emphasising that there is no community spread, the Minister cited the example from a few months ago, when an entire family was affected, and a school had to be closed for contact tracing as a result of someone not following protocols.

He noted that the entire island could be impacted if just one person becomes complacent, or fails to follow protocols.

Lt Col Bostic asserted that if persons do not continue to keep their guard up, they may end up interacting with someone who is an asymptomatic positive case, be it on transportation, at the bread shop, a financing institution or the supermarket.

“So, it is up to each and every one of us to continue to observe the protocols because if we keep ourselves safe, which is our personal and individual responsibility, no matter what comes our way, we have a very, very good chance of remaining safe, once we do the right things,” he stated.