#BTEditorial – No easy road back to full reopening

Infrequently, we come across people who impress us not only with their knowledge of a subject, but their professionalism, and most important, their authenticity.

One such person is Dr Corey Forde, our lead infectious disease control specialist and the manager of the COVID-19 Isolation Unit at Harrison Point, St Lucy.

His has come to be regarded as one of the key voices of legitimacy when Government spokespersons address the nation on issues related to the pandemic.

Dr Forde, who speaks of his humble background and his desire to always “keep it real”, is not one for highly varnished words or overly political correctness. He speaks from his heart and his scientific training.

And so, on Saturday, it was not surprising to hear this highly trained specialist appeal to Barbadians and young people like himself, to get tested and more important, take the vaccine.

Not one to seek the limelight, Dr Forde is seldom the substantive voice at the Ministry of Health’s public engagements, however, when he does address such fora, his interventions are always timely and effective.

In his last national appearance over the weekend, the goodly doctor issued an important plea and an ominous warning. He made it clear that contrary to popular belief, COVID-19 has gone nowhere.

It would appear that plans by Government to relax the COVID-19 restrictions on public gatherings, has lulled us into a false sense of security, that maybe, we have beaten back this deadly virus.

Our experience with this disease during the last quarter of 2020, should stand as ample evidence that falling numbers of reported coronavirus cases is no indication that all is well.

As people are inclined to do, after a sustained period of restricted movements, the desire to get out, party and enjoy life becomes inevitable.

We reopened the economy, allowed bus crawls, parties and all was set for one of the biggest Old Year’s Night celebrations in 2020. Abruptly, we were forced to shut it all down within hours of the planned festivities.

After declaring for a brief period that the island was “COVID-free” came a burst of infections, which many linked to the entry of the British variant in the country.

But Dr Forde’s revelation days ago that young people were comprising the bulk of new infections, was not a complete surprise.

He disclosed that two Barbadians in their 40s were now severely ill at the St Lucy facility.

“Just a few days ago we had a young male in secondary care who was 20-years-old and presented quite ill. For all you Barbadians who think because you are young you can’t get ill that is not true. We have seen that over the last week.”

“COVID-19 has gone nowhere. Barbados is at a strategic crossroads, and we need the help of the public. We need people from the heights, terraces, blocks, middle class to children in rural and urban areas to help us calm this situation,” he appealed.

The doctor’s request is even more important as there are growing concerns about the confirmed presence of the highly infectious Delta and Brazil variants on the island.

We acknowledge that the country has to reopen. As chairman of the Barbados Private Sector Association Mr Edward Clarke stressed in this publication last week, the country cannot operate on half of an economy.

At the same time, we wholeheartedly endorse Dr Forde’s appeal to young people to get tested and to take the vaccine. With so many younger Barbadians still unvaccinated, the threat posed by the Delta variant adds urgency to the situation.

Bookings to Barbados by British citizens are on the rise and with them will come the possibility of infections. Britain has become a hotbed for the Delta variant where it is now the dominant source of COVID-19 infections.

We are highly dependent on the British market and so it will be a delicate balancing act between facilitating visitors from the United Kingdom and limiting exposure of the local population to the infectious disease.

It is of great interest, the decision of Hong Kong to ban all passenger flights from the United Kingdom from Thursday in order to curb the spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19.

We appreciate the political dimension to the decision taken by China regarding Hong Kong. The decision may be linked to the tense relationship with China and Britain over governance of Hong Kong.

But even within Europe, British visitors are facing restrictions. Austria has banned flights from South Africa, India, Brazil, and the UK from landing there. Travel to Belgium from the United Kingdom has been banned due to the spread of the Delta variant with the exception of Belgian nationals and residents. And Croatia is only allowing British citizens to enter the country for essential travel.

We in Barbados are hedging our bets on the effectiveness of our COVID-19 screening processes and we hope for all our sakes that we are successful in those efforts.