NEWS
Prayers outside Couva hospital
A group of people gathered outside the Couva Hospital and Multi-purpose Facility on Sunday in a prayer and worship session hoping for divine intervention regarding the covid19 pandemic. Tricia Herreira, the spokesperson for the group named Kingdom Wealth, spoke with Newsday. "We believe that healing comes from the blood of Jesus Christ. We believe that once the churches come together and unite, God will answer our prayers. TT could be the example where the world can see that prayers can heal the virus." Members also waved placards with religious messages as security stood watch from the booth at the Solomon Hochoy Highway entrance. Read more here
Girl, 10, dies after being knocked down on PBR
A ten-year-old girl died after a car struck her along the Priority Bus Route yesterday morning. The victim has been identified as Gabrina Nero, of Macoya Gardens.She was a Standard Four pupil, at the St Joseph Government School. Read more here
POLITICS
Culture Minister: Carnival 2021 will not be the same as 2020
Minister of Community Development, Culture and the Arts Dr Nyan Gadbsy-Dolly is sure that Carnival 2021 is not going to be the same as the Carnival held at the end of February this year. Gasby-Dolly in a phone interview with Newsday said the ministry was looking at what happens over the next two to three months. Around the world, festivals, major events and Carnivals have been cancelled with Barbados’ Crop Over being the latest. Official word of the cancellation was issued on Sunday. “Well the festival industry around the world right now is just reeling. A lot of discussions are going on around that, ‘How are festivals to proceed,’” she said. Read more here
Principals Association tells ministry ‘soften tone’
National Primary Schools’ Principals Association is recommending that the Ministry of Education softens its tone, consult as far as is possible with all major stakeholders in education. It also called on the ministry to stop threatening principals and teachers. According to the NAPSPA’s president, Lance Mottley, in a release, explained that the association has no difficulty in assisting the education ministry in continuing to provide for the needs of the nation’s students, “once it is within reason.”Mottley said frankly that what the association has is “great difficulty, however, with the harsh and condescending tones that the ministry seems to prefer to use to engage us.” “Every action has a reaction, and such tones by the MOE and its agents do not sit well with our teaching professionals,” Mottley said. Read more here
BUSINESS
The Broken Link
In recent years, the prices of agricultural goods and fossil fuels began trending in the same direction. Read more here
REGIONAL
Recount must be done within the ambit of the curfew – PM tells GECOM
THE National COVID-19 Task Force (NCTF) has decided that the pending national recount must be conducted within the COVID-19 curfew hours, and international observers coming to the country must submit themselves to a 14-day quarantine at a government institution. The Task Force has also requested that GECOM allows four technical experts of the Public Health Emergency Operations Centre (PHEOC) to conduct a site visit to the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC) – where the recount will take place – to assess whether distancing arrangements conform to the established COVID-19 guidelines and the published Order. Read more here
Corn Piece COVID nightmare - Family with first fatality in despair after daughter tests positive; 70-year-old recovering victim hobbled by stroke
Two days after a monthlong quarantine was lifted from the central Jamaica community of Corn Piece Settlement, the family of the man who became the island’s first COVID-19 fatality is in the throes of the disease again. The victim’s 50-year-old daughter has been confirmed to have the disease, having tested negative twice before. Having already claimed the life of the 79-year-old patriarch – a death initially surrounded by controversy – COVID-19 resulted in the entire community of Corn Piece Settlement being quarantined on March 19. Read more here
INTERNATIONAL
Some anti-vaxxers are changing their minds because of the coronavirus pandemic
Never has a vaccine been so eagerly anticipated. Scientists are racing to produce a coronavirus inoculation on an unprecedented timescale, and some political leaders have warned that the restrictions on our lives may not be completely lifted until one is available. That's something of a challenge to the anti-vaccine movement, many of whose members are strongly opposed to mandatory vaccines. But the virus has also done something more startling. It has made some anti-vaxxers change their minds. Haley Searcy, 26, from Florida, told CNN she was "fully anti-vax" when her daughter was born in 2019. Read more here
Air pollution linked to raised Covid-19 death risk
High levels of air pollution could raise the risk of dying from Covid-19, two studies suggest. Dr Maria Neira, of the World Health Organization (WHO), told BBC News countries with high pollution levels, many in Latin America, Africa and Asia, should ramp up their preparations. Those with underlying pollution-related conditions have developed severe Covid-19 in countries with high levels. But medical professionals say it is too early to prove a direct relationship. "We will be doing a map of most polluted cities based on our database to support national authorities in these regions so that they can prepare their epidemic response plan accordingly," Dr Neira said. Read more here
20th April 2020