A few weeks ago, someone in our neighbouring islands asserted: “This COVID virus has not come to play dominoes. It has come to kill.” The statement was obviously intended to reach the ordinary man or woman engaged in one of our popular games, with diverse players. The assertion ricocheted across the rest of the region with a ring of humour but, at the same time, it certainly conveyed a message of severe warning and death.
We here in Anguilla must take note of our vulnerable situation. After COVID-19 came to light in March 2020, it took quite some time for the virus to turn up on the island. This was largely because, the then AUF Government, in its wisdom, enforced immediate and strict precautionary steps. The island was basically locked down and closely monitored. Police and other guards were set up at the seaports; and there were recognisant fights and boat patrols particularly on the southern coastline of the island – and penalties were imposed for breaches.
It was an expensive operation costing about 120,000 US dollars: 800,000 initially and 400,000 for an extension. The funding was
provided by the UK Government. At the same time, accommodation, in preparation for future COVID patients, testing and protective facilities and lab personnel were also thoughtfully acquired. That is why today we have some of the critical necessities available to combat the spread of the virus. Sadly, it is a life and death situation which has slowly moved from zero to a few sporadic cases – and now over 100 known infections and climbing, with one death so far, and up to eight hospitalisations announced. God grant that the virus does not overwhelm our small but ever-watchful health system.
We ought to be grateful to our hardworking and obviously tired health team, headed by the Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Aisha Andrewin. This professional has mainly been the person writing and sending out almost twice-weekly press releases which, over the course of time, took on a common format. That has now been changed to Dashboard, a more convenient and simpler Facebook version, taking out the boredom of repetition – though perhaps disappointing the man on the street accustomed to listening to the regular detailed radio reports and unable to access the online versions.
Initially, Anguilla’s COVID situation was negligible, as indicated earlier, attracting visitors not wishing to travel to other hard-hit destinations and feeling safer to come to Anguilla. Eventually the virus infection in Anguilla moved to level one which was still regarded as an insignificant status. According to our Honourable Premier and Minister of Finance and Health, the COVID situation is now at level 3, with the Delta strain coming in. At that level, the advice – probably from the Centres of Disease Control – is that persons should be careful to travel to jurisdictions having that level of infection. And when a country is at level 4, per percentage of the population, it is a severe warning to persons not to travel there.
This is not good news when one considers that tourism is Anguilla’s main economic engine, with the industry representing 85 percent of the economy. Despite our rising COVID statistics, tourists are however still coming in large numbers to our destination. According to them, one reason is the strict protective protocols – notwithstanding that there have been complaints about length of quarantine and the cost of testing, the latter of which has now been reduced.
Anguilla is now at 59 percent of fully vaccinated persons, with another 20 percent unvaccinated. But this last figure is likely to go down as the spreading of the virus, and the fear of infection, appear to be causing even some fully-vaccinated persons, as well as the unvaccinated, to get jittery and to rush to be tested – especially if they are experiencing symptoms of what may be only the common flu. They are not taking any chances. But there are those who are vehemently opposed to taking the vaccine – claiming constitutional and religious rights as well as health reasons; and, plainly, no rights at all – except their own baseless decision and stubbornness.
One thing did not look good on our part. It is that the UK Government provided thousands of doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine for Anguilla – free of cost. As a number of persons refused to be vaccinated, a considerable supply, which expired, had to be discarded. A useable supply that remained, and was not taken up locally, as well, has had to be sent to The Bahamas to safeguard the people there. That the UK Government has now provided additional vaccines, including the Pfizer vaccine for our children as well as extra AstraZeneca doses for other persons, makes us sort of admire the generosity and forbearance of that administering power and the British taxpayers.
A test case now is the Pfizer vaccine for children. It will be left to seen how many parents will give their consent for the vaccinations. One report states that several days ago just below 200 children had been registered for the vaccine out of a large number of 12-17 year-olds, the majority of which – probably 2,000 and more – are schoolchildren. Our youth are the future leaders of every sector in Anguilla and this must not be forgotten. They must be able to live productive lives and to achieve the professions, trades and occupations that will propel them to become the leaders they aspire to. At this point, we commend our 2021 CXC students who, despite the challenges of COVID, and the difficulties of online study and research, performed commendably in their various examinations.
At present, all primary schools are closed and e-learning is the order of the day. This is not an easy situation for restless youngsters some of whom do not commit themselves to classroom learning, let alone e-learning. This system is supposed to be supervised by teachers and parents – some of them unseen by the children who may not be fully-focussed on their laptops and other mobile devices. Clearly, if our children want to succeed academically, they must become fully-participatory in the e-learning process and in face to face classroom learning, when it is restored. While they are in this period of e-learning, their new, massive and costly school buildings, remain disappointingly, but understandingly closed – but almost in derision of the purpose for which they were constructed.
Our population is a small one and our health facilities are also small and limited. Tourism is the main driver of our economy, with thousands of visitors coming to our shores each year; and our workforce is mainly in the tourism sector, currently with at least three of our large hotels accounting for over 500 employees each. Unfortunately, this sector, as important and financially lucrative, as it is, can become a COVID hot bed if we are not careful, and ruin our economy. All concerned must take note of this and govern themselves accordingly. Enough said.
We return to the opening sentences of our editorial by stressing that Anguilla is facing a dangerous and not a jokey situation. To use the vernacular of our Caribbean dialect people, to get our admonition across, as effectively as possible, permit us to say: “Mi boi, dis COVID ting is serious. It comin’ to kill we; an’ we mus’ fite it wid all we might. We mus’ tek care of we selves; an’ we beluv Anguilla.”
