St Lucia government must rectify mismanagement of COVID-19, says Opposition Leader

St Lucia: St Lucia Labour Party president, Philip Pierre on Tuesday lambasted the government over its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Terming it the mismanagement, Pierre said, "first of all, I want to repeat the SLP concerns of the Government’s continued mismanagement of the COVID 19 pandemic in Saint Lucia."

He said, "The steady rise in the number of deaths and the fact that the amount of positive cases has not decreased is of great attention to us. Saint Lucia now has the most acute COVID-19 statistics in the Eastern Caribbean and is currently the severest in the Eastern Caribbean in the management of its COVID-19 response; this should alarm us."

Only today, there were 155 positive cases out of 377 tests. "When in Parliament we made the point that the R factor was necessary, we are not carried on as usual. Therefore, I will urge the Government to follow the science and best practices in the world to bring this pandemic under control," he added.

In this regard, the Government should give serious consideration to the Saint Lucia Medical and Dental Association's recommendations on how to deal with what it sees as a more deadly threat to the country in the next month from COVID-19. While the Government, as usual, is disputing the association’s figures and its basis for its dire predictions, we all have to agree that we are in a bleak situation and that urgent, corrective action is required.

The arrival this week of the gift of vaccines for Saint Lucia from India is therefore welcomed. "On behalf of the Saint Lucia Labour Party and the people of Saint Lucia, I would like to thank India's Government for this gift and again to thank the Governments of Barbados and Dominica for coming to our rescue." "You may recall that I had called last month for the quick implementation of the programme to immunize our people as the best defense against COVID -19. I am therefore appealing once more to everyone, to all Saint Lucians to register for the vaccination programme, particularly those people in the most vulnerable groups. As I have promised before, I will take the vaccine after the frontline workers and first responders have been vaccinated," Pierre asserted.

The Government has adopted another of our recommendations. That is the deployment of a contact tracing app, which we had called for a few months ago.

"As you recalled last week, the Government went to Parliament to obtain approval to borrow another $80M for its COVID response programme." However, this response programme fails to provide economic relief and support for those small enterprises, entrepreneurs, self-employed persons, minibus drivers, entertainers and those most badly affected by the economic downturn caused by COVID-19.

When we raised this in the House of Assembly, Government members scoffed, saying that financial institutions do not lend you money to give to people. But this is precisely what those concessionary loans are for.

According to a World Bank press statement made since the 14th of January 2021 in Washington on the loan to Saint Lucia, it quote:

“This quick dispersing credits aims to help mitigate the negative economic impact on the most vulnerable Saint Lucians. This World Bank financing is expected to help the government enhance the health sector's capacity and provide short-term relief to the poor, small businesses, and most severely affected workers. It supports measures to ensure business continuity and to save jobs.”

This is the World Bank's rationale for the loan. "In my several addresses on COVID-19, I have always included a support plan for those most in need. I will continue to call on the Government to do so. The SLP will always put people first," said the leader of opposition.

"I want to raise today the point of diversifying our economy so that Saint Lucia is not totally dependent on tourism as the COVID-19 experience has demonstrated. In previous national addresses from as far back as two years ago, I alluded to the economic opportunities in the area of economic activity like the medicinal and recreational cannabis industry."

"I want to reiterate that the Saint Lucia Labour Party is fully committed to establishing this industry, and a future Saint Lucia Labour Party Government will embark on a robust education policy programme. A robust education policy program that, in the first instance, will lead to the decriminalization of marijuana to legalizing it and also to make full use of the economic benefits that can be derived from the production of cannabis," concluded SLP leader Philip Pierre

Since this statement was issued, there has been an additional 234 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and one coronavirus related death in Saint Lucia