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Basseterre, St. Kitts, November 17, 2020 (SKNIS): Frontline workers and members of the National COVID-19 Task Force in St. Kitts and Nevis, who were instrumental in ensuring that citizens and residents remain safe and secure during the COVID-19 Pandemic over the past several months and in the immediate future came in for high praise during the Sitting of Parliament on Tuesday, November 17, 2020.

Special mention was made of Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Hazel Laws; Medical Chief of Staff at the Joseph Nathaniel France (JNF) General Hospital, Dr. Cameron Wilkinson, and Abdias Samuel, Chair of the National COVID-19 Task Force. 

“Their leadership, selflessness, sacrificial guidance, their love of country were evident in the long hours, the advice, the spur of the moment, arrival at meetings that were important and their leadership of the Task Force by extension,” said the Honourable Senator Wendy Phipps, Minister of International Trade, Industry, Commerce, Consumer Affairs and Labour. “We at the same time would have to give due credit to the security forces of our country, our frontline workers, Immigration, Customs, SCASPA, NEMA, the St. Kitts Tourism Authority who were all part and parcel of the thrust towards getting the COVID-19 Pandemic under control.”

Minister Phipps also recognized the COVID-19 Compliance Task Force who continues to professionally execute its duties.

“At the same time, we also thank those workers, the compliance officers, who would have laboured continuously in terms of making sure that the non-pharmaceutical protocols are in place to this point to save lives since there is still no vaccine regardless of what AstraZeneca, Moderna, and others would have touted as their 95 percent or 90 percent efficacy in terms of getting close to a vaccine that should deal with the pandemic,” said the minister. “But in the interim, these are the people we must rely on and while we continue within the context of the State of Emergency we still would require their services and their selflessness when it comes to their own personal time and families that would have been sidelined in the interest of national development, and again out of love of country.”

Deputy Speaker, Senator the Honourable Bernicia Nisbett, shared similar sentiments and recognized those who played a pivotal role in the safety of all. She recognized them for being exemplary and outstanding in their duties “by keeping this Federation relatively safe during this pandemic.”

“Mr. Speaker, as the numbers increased, the Task Force went back to the drawing board to strategize the best course of action that can be taken to comeback the spread of COVID-19 in our Federation,” said Dr. Nisbett.

Dr. Nisbett used the occasion to thank all the healthcare frontline workers; the district medical officers; the doctors in medical institutions; the matron at JNF General Hospital; the community and hospital nurses; the emergency medical technicians;  the lab technicians; the orderlies and auxiliary staff “for the tremendous job they do every day to ensure the safety of our nation.”