As the date draws close for all frontline workers in SVG to get vaccinated, Prime Minister Gonsalves said the uptick at the airports and ports is not good.
Gonsalves said he understands that workers at the ports of entry say that he will not enforce the law.
“I think some of them have been listening to 2kool Chris, who thinks that I am bluffing. I want to assure you that in the discussion we had in mid-July on the issuance of these regulations and my address to the nation on independence day, I speak with all solemnity and seriousness. Unless we take the vaccine, we are not going to get back to normalcy”.
Gonsalves said the state would face real economic challenges in addition to what La Soufriere and COVID have already brought on.
“We have gone over this, over and over again. I understand it is said by some of the people at the airport that they are indispensable, that you have to train them and that will take time, so I can’t do anything there”.
“Well, you know, if you go to the cemetery, you meet a lot of people who thought they were indispensable. So I don’t know why people get up in this ego thing about who and who is not indispensable”.
Gonsalves said the vaccine is good for the worker, their family and country, and the airport and seaport at which workers earn their living.
Gonsalves further stated that the country is not going to move on unless we solve this issue.
“La Soufriere and COVID have brought on a new paradigm; we will not be able to continue in the old way.
“I don’t want anyone to lose their jobs, and that is not the intention. But we have to take the vaccine to get back to some level of normalcy, it’s the best tool in the toolbox”, Gonsalves said.
The latest figures provided by the health authorities on Thursday indicate that 48,553 vaccines have been administered, with 28,255 having their first dose and 20,298 receiving the second dose.
The figures also show that one thousand one hundred and sixty-one (1161) cases are currently active, and seventy-one (71) persons with COVID-19 have died.
Five thousand two hundred and four (5204) cases of COVID-19 and three thousand nine hundred and seventy-two (3972) recoveries have been recorded in St. Vincent and the Grenadines since March 2020.