Retired professionals enlisted in fight against virus

ST VINCENT and the Grenadines has limited resources as it responds to the global threat of the novel Coronavirus, but, there are plans to re-employ retired health professionals in the fight to keep the virus at bay.

At a news conference hosted by the Ministry of Health on Monday, Vincentians heard of how the country plans to bolster the efforts of the response team.

“We are limited in terms of the actual bodies in the Ministry of Health itself, and this is why it is so important about what we are doing here today “Chief Medical Officer, Dr Simone Keizer-Beache told reporters.

“Everybody needs to be your brother’s keeper, we need eyes and ears so, you have to know what are the symptoms. We said fever, sore throat, cough and diarrhea,” The Chief Medical Officer also stated, “so, we have port health nurses.”

She pointed out that over the last two years, a further three port health nurses were brought on staff , “and if needs be, we can re-employ some of our retired port health staff – both nurses and environmental health officers.

So, in terms of our surge capacity for that particular skill set, that will be the plan – to re-engage some of the retired port health officers be they EHO’s or public health nurses.”

Minister of Health, Luke Browne, told reporters that, following the World Health Organization’s statement on January 30, declaring the spread of the Coronavirus to be a “global emergency,” the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) urged member states to continue to be vigilant and step up surveillance at ports of entry. He noted, however, that the regional organization “indicated that the risk from the novel Coronavirus remains low for the Caribbean region.”

In its January 30, 2020, statement, the WHO said: “the rise in new coronavirus cases outside China, now constitutes a global health emergency” and it called on all countries to take urgent measures to contain the respiratory disease.