DLP President Verla De Peiza.
The Democratic Labour Party (DLP) is urging Government, if it has not already done so, to ensure that all frontline workers at our ports of entry and across the tourism industry are given the appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) to shield them from the novel coronavirus.
In a statement released yesterday, the DLP’s President Verla De Peiza, said that while the political party understands and appreciates the desire to keep Barbados open for business as long as possible, PPE for such persons is essential now.
“As the virus creeps closer to this island, we hold the view that the time has passed when the frontline workers in national security, as well as passenger agents working for local management companies and all other staff who may have to interact with visitors or clean their waste, are afforded the utmost personal protection and consideration,” she said.
De Peiza made the point while reflecting on one of the cases in the Caribbean. She said that the person was in transit through Barbados and it is understood that none of the local staff wore protective gear and neither were they tested nor isolated.
“This is not acceptable. The welfare of Barbadians must be paramount. The Government is urged to put people before economics and safeguard all workers at our ports of entry,” she stated.
Expanding on her comments to The Barbados Advocate, the attorney said that the frontline workers are likely to be the first to interact with persons who have the virus, not the medical team. While acknowledging that the medical team also has to be protected, she maintained that they come second in line, after the frontline workers have been exposed.
“The thing is a case is an inevitability; it is not an ‘if’ it is a ‘when’, especially when we have not closed our borders in any significant way. Considering that a lot of our neighbours have had their transfer from those who would potentially be our major partners in tourism, and also the information we have received that at least one person who has tested positive was in transit through Barbados, then I think even if our initial position was that we have our medical staff accommodated and protected, then we should be in a different phase now,” De Peiza stated.
She continued, “The position is not the same as last Monday or last Tuesday. At that time we didn’t have any in the Caribbean and then in short measure we had several in the Caribbean. So we need to have a change in position, we have to have that much flexibility in our provisions, whatever our protocols are, that can accommodate making these quick changes... These persons are the first potential contact with whosoever has the virus, whether it is in the incubation period or they are manifesting symptoms – these persons will interact and interface with them.”
With that in mind, she maintained that no one at the ports of entry for example, should be handling a visitor’s travel documents with their bare hands. She said the possibility of transfer of the virus is too great to allow such to occur.
“The possibility of spread is not a joke when we are dealing with them,” she contended.
