As Anguilla prepares to open its borders on November 1, the Government and Saint James School of Medicine held a joint Covid-19 Awareness Seminar at the Teachers’ Resource Centre on Tuesday evening, October 13.
Those who spoke at the event were Premier and Minister of Health and Finance, Dr. Ellis Webster; Minister of Social Development and Education, Ms. Dee-Ann Kentish-Rogers; Minister of Tourism and Infrastructure, Mr. Hadyn Hughes; Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Mr. Foster Rogers; Dr. Aisha Andrewin, Chief Medical Officer; Dr. Jose Ramirez and Dr. Claude Illiou, Professors at Saint James School of Medicine which sponsored the seminar.
Dr. Ramirez explained that with the imminent opening of Anguilla’s borders, the aim of the live seminar was to advise the people on the island on how to remain safe – and to answer questions from Anguillians in the diaspora, and visitors, on how they should come to Anguilla and what the protocol requirements were. Among other matters, he touched on how the virus is spread, the symptoms of the disease, the precautions involved and, of the need for infected persons to be quarantined or isolated. He was assisted in his presentation by Dr. lliou.
Minister Kentish-Rogers reflected that Anguilla had been fortunate in not having the more than three Covid-19 cases since in March and that, unlike persons abroad, Anguillians had been able to involve themselves in various public functions, including fun-filled events.
“We are now encouraging our people back into proper habit-forming: practicing social hygiene, washing their hands and social distancing,” she stressed. “This is because…sometimes we become comfortable and we want to re-enforce that we want our people to get back in the habit of being careful.”
In terms of the safety of employees and visitors, Minister Haydn Hughes said there had been the training of staff at villas and hotels; and that the properties had been engaged in certain protocols in order to be certified for the reopening of the tourism industry.
Both Dr. Andrewin and Mr. Foster Rogers spoke in detail about the work of the Ministry and the Health Authority, in Anguilla, in ensuring that the Covid-19 virus does not enter the island and spread into the community. Mr. Rogers stated that there was top of the line testing in Anguilla for the virus with the assistance of the UK Government. He hoped that continued financial aid would be available next year as well.
In wrapping up the seminar, Premier Dr. Webster said: “We have to open. We have gone from lockdown to soft-opening with villas certified for our guests. In phase two, the hotels are now being certified for opening on November first. The protocols have been put in place…and we are certainly pushing for the best practices. As you heard from everyone, our goal is to limit the chance of importing the virus and, most of all, limiting the chance of community spread.”
The Premier added: “We have the testing in place; the isolation unit which we hope we will never have to use and the ventilators in place…Some people ridicule us for saying we wanted to stay closed until at least until October 31st. Persons here in Anguilla and around the region were sceptical, but we found that was necessary to help us to get things in place; and now we have more testing capacity. We have a Senior Lab Technician coming from Public Health England to help us with testing. As we open up to guests, we want to ensure that we will be safe. There is still concern that we shouldn’t open at all -and that we should stay with this Covid-free status we have. Thank God we have recovered from the three cases, but we know that there is a chance that the virus can come in.., but we will always look at the best interest of the people of Anguilla…
“We also know that we have to open the economy so that our people can go back to work. We thank the hoteliers and the villa owners for their patience and waiting on us. We are opening up the ports…Our visitors will have to come in wearing masks and when they get to their facilities – hotels of villas –they will have to stay in place. The hotels and villas will be their isolation units. They will be allowed activities including going to the beach but all of this will be controlled.”
There will be another seminar on October 29.
