Opposition senator says legislation cannot be put ‘on hold’; return to Parliament needed

Opposition Senator Caswell Franklyn says Government has run itself into trouble with the safe zones’ initiative which has not been properly thought through and makes no sense.

Franklyn told Barbados TODAY that he was not surprised that Government has put a hold on the safe zones, considering that healthcare practitioners, particularly nurses, are concerned about the measures.

Under the Emergency Management (COVID-19) (Safe Zones) Directive, vaccinated employees at all healthcare institutions including, nursing homes, private hospitals, senior citizens’ homes, dental offices, doctors’ offices, testing sites, quarantine facilities, and isolation facilities are to be COVID-19 tested at least once every 42 days. Unvaccinated employees on the other hand must be tested once weekly or as often as the Chief Medical Officer determines.

Franklyn said: “My nurses, most of them are not vaccinated because they don’t believe that the vaccine is effective. A lot of them don’t believe that they should get tested regularly because it is harmful for their health. Even the vaccinated people are saying, no, every 42 days pushing this thing up in my nose is not on.

“What will the test do? It would cause more harm to the nurses than anything else. Nobody can tell us if these measures are going to be effective, and even if they are potentially effective, they don’t make sense. The Government has to go back to the drawing board because the workers are standing up now and saying ‘thus far and no further’. You see, this week some polyclinics could not open?”

He added: “If I go into a safe zone and I leave and go home and catch the bus and everything else when I come back tomorrow, I could pick up COVID and bring in COVID with me. It does not make any sense. I don’t understand why big people who are supposed to be intelligent do not understand that this is nonsense. But the problem here is that this is politically-driven as opposed to being medically-driven.”

On Tuesday, Minister of Health Lt Col Jeffrey Bostic said that Government was going back to the drawing board on the proposed introduction of safe zones conceived to help contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bostic admitted that the implementation of the new policy had not been smooth, and indicated that a number of meetings will be held with various stakeholders. “It is obvious that some things have not gone right in relation to the roll-out of the safe zones.”

The Minister of Health admitted legitimate concerns have been raised by stakeholders, including the Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners (BAMP).

Senator Franklyn said: “They can’t put it on hold in the manner that they put it on hold. This is legislation. If you put legislation in place through Parliament and you want to put it on hold you have to go back through Parliament and do that.

“Now if the Prime Minister make the orders, she has to make another order to put it on hold. They have not done so, so as far as I am concerned, the safe zone is still in effect. It is just that the Government don’t want to make itself look worse than it is, so they are pretending and they are doing it wrong again.

“So for all intents and purposes, since the safe zone legislation has not been repealed, or suspended, they are still enforced. The Government now is refusing to obey the law that they just put in place Sunday. And why can’t they put it in place? It don’t make sense.” anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb