‘Urgent effort’ needed to save lives from COVID-19 – DLP

Barbados is under siege as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and is in need of an urgent plan to save lives and livelihoods, the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) has declared.

Party officials on Thursday questioned why the Mia Mottley-led government was not doing more to stem the spread of the virus, which has claimed more than 70 lives over the past two months and 116 of them this year alone.

Speaking at a media conference at the DLP’s Belleville headquarters, President Verla DePeiza and Vice President Andre Worrell put forward a plan they said would help to “strategically manage how we move, how we do our business and how we relate to each other”.

Worrell, who is the party’s spokesman on health, said they have been urging Government to “follow the science, listen to the doctors and actually implement measures that can control the COVID virus”, to no avail.

“We recognise that Barbados is under siege as a result of the COVID virus . . . Barbados is under siege because of the Delta variant that is taking the lives of our loved ones and making thousands of others sick with untold suffering and hardship,” said Worrell.

The death rate from the virus since the pandemic started to affect the island was at 124 as at Wednesday, October 20.

Over the last seven days, the island witnessed a peak in COVID-19 positivity rate. There were 617 people in isolation facilities and 3,666 in home isolation as of Wednesday.

Pointing to the high COVID-19 rates and rise in related deaths, Worrell said it did not matter if the individuals were vaccinated or not, but the question should be if enough was being done to protect the population.

“We are also under siege because the government fails to act. The government refuses to take recommendations from the Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners. The government talks about following the science but is hell bent on following the business lobby. The government is also hell bent on following what is public opinion rather than making the hard decisions and providing the leadership that is important at this time,” said Worrell.

He said as the positivity rate continued to trend upward the DLP is concerned about the laissez-faire approach of the Mottley administration to the management of the COVID-1.

Calling for “serious intervention” from Government to arrest the situation, Worrell said he was also concerned about the strain that the rising numbers were putting on the health system.

He said while the home isolation programme was implemented it had not gone far enough in addressing the problem and it also had its flaws with people reportedly waiting “for days and even weeks”, and others seem to have been “forgotten” in the system.

“They are not getting the type of treatment they ought to get because our healthcare system does not have the capacity to deal with over 4,000 people in isolation.”

Brushing aside Government’s plan to establish safe zones, party President Verla De Peiza said more short-term, targeted and strategic measures were needed.

Pointing out that the DLP has been in contact with the medical professionals, she recommended that Government instead urgently implements several “containment measures” including extending business hours, implementing work-from-home mandates where possible, greater e-commerce use, ramping up COVID-19 testing across the island and tightening of the borders.

Lamenting the negative impact of the pandemic on the workforce, De Peiza said it was also having a severe impact on lives and therefore a balance must be struck between protecting the economy and saving lives.

“When we have people working from home we have fewer of them on public transport and fewer of them on the road. We also need . . . an e-commerce push so that we have fewer persons going into businesses but business is still being conducted,” said De Peiza.

She explained that longer business hours would allow for people to do their business at different times of the day, resulting in shorter lines and less gathering and crowding.

In relation to the testing, De Peiza said now was a good time for the data from Operation Seek and Save gathered earlier this year to be used.

“That information now is very pertinent for targeting our communities. You know where the hotspots are, we have the household information, target them for testing,” she said.

“In terms of our borders, the tightest of controls at the borders is necessary. It is not enough for the minister to say we have ‘strong measures at the border’ and that ‘we are catching them at the borders’. The fact of the matter is that COVID got into the community because it was brought to Barbados,” she said.

“This is what we need to have as our COVID plan going forward so that we can reach some level of normalcy,” said De Peiza, adding that if those steps were not taken then Barbadians would again not have the kind of Christmas they were used to enjoying.

The DLP leader, who said it was disheartening that the state of public health emergency had been extended for another five months, also called for greater awareness and education instead of “castigation” of people who did not want to take the vaccine. marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb