NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — Closed schools, surging poverty, forced marriages and depression — after a year of the pandemic, indicators measuring child and adolescent development have all regressed, a setback that heralds lasting stigma for an entire generation, UNICEF warned Thursday. “The number of children who are hungry, isolated, abused, anxious, living in poverty and forced into marriage has increased,” Henrietta Fore, executive director of the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, said in a statement released exactly one year since the World Health Organization classified COVID-19 as a pandemic. “Their access to education, socialisation and essential services…
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DIEGO MARTIN fisherman and a Port of Spain security guard were both granted bail after appearing before a Port of Spain Magistrate on Monday on sex charges. The fisherman is charged with assaulting two seven-year-old girls between 2019 and last week while the security guard is charged with assaulting his teen relative. In the first case, the fisherman, 58, was charged by Western Division Child Protection Unit (CPU) officers on March 7 with the two separate reports. Police said one seven-year-old girl was at the home of the suspect on March 1 this year when he allegedly touched her. In…
Minister of Tourism, Civil Aviation, Sustainable Development and Culture, Hon. Carlos James, is appealing to stakeholders within the tourism sector to join the current COVID-19 vaccination drive. The tourism Minister was among hundreds of Vincentians who turned up at health centres across the country this week to receive their first dose of the Oxford AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine. Minister James, who received his vaccine on `Monday March 8, 2021 at the Chateaubelair Health Centre, made the call for stakeholders within the tourism sector to play an even greater role in the fight against the novel coronavirus by giving greater consideration to…
1. Over the weekend the monitoring team did a walk through along the west coast downwind of the volcano to test for volcanic gas. 2. Measurements of carbon dioxide in the soil was also done along the lower parts of the western sides of the volcano. 3. Training of local volunteers in seismic data processing will continue on Thursday and Friday. 4. Measurements to the Electronic Distance Measurement (EDM reflector) at the top the volcano is done with the support of the Lands & Surveys Department. 5. Satellite images of the crater from Sunday 7th March, 2021 indicated that the…
A number of health supplies critical in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic were donated to the Chateaubelair health district on Monday. The donation was made possible through the efforts of Parliamentary Representative, Hon. Carlos James while on a visit to the facility to raise awareness on the national covid-19 vaccination drive. The MP lauded the commitment of frontline workers in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, noting that the donation was part of ongoing efforts to provide support to health workers within his constituency. “We made a similar donation last year to the health district in the form of…
St. Vincent and the Grenadines today reported four (4) new positive cases from eighty-five (85) samples received and processed on Tuesday March 9, 2021,resulting in a positivity rate of 4.7%. Seven (7) persons were cleared bringing the number of total recoveries to eleven hundred and fourteen (1114). Five hundred and fifty-two (552) cases remain active and eight (8) persons with COVID-19 have died. One thousand, six hundred and seventy-four (1674) cases of COVID-19 have been reported in St. Vincent and the Grenadines since March 2020. The public is urged to use a mask, sanitize, physically distance and get vaccinated to…
Occasional cloudy skies and a few showers are forecast for tonight, and Wednesday morning, with mostly fair conditions forecast for Wednesday afternoon. An increase in cloudy conditions are likely around Thursday with showers possible on Friday mainly over the Southern Grenadines, spreading to the mainland by late evening. An east north east to east (ENE-E) wind flow approximately 25km/h-35km/h will blow across SVG during the next 72 hours becoming east south east (ESE) around Friday night. Seas will be slight to moderate in open waters tonight, with swells peaking at 1.0m on the western coasts, and 2.0m on the eastern…
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Tuesday signed into law legislation banning nearly all abortions in the state, a sweeping measure that supporters hope will force the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit its landmark Roe v. Wade decision but opponents vow to block before it takes effect later this year. The Republican governor had expressed reservations about the bill, which only allows the procedure to save the life of the mother and does not provide exceptions for those impregnated in an act of rape or incest. Arkansas is one of at least 14 states where legislators…
Queen Elizabeth II on Tuesday finally broke her silence over the allegations Prince Harry and Meghan Markle leveled in their Sunday TV sit-down, saying that “the whole family is saddened” and that the “issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning” — although “recollections may vary.” The queen — addressing the pair’s explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey — said in a statement, “The whole family is saddened to learn the full extent of how challenging the last few years have been for Harry and Meghan. “The issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning. Whilst some recollections may vary, they…
GENEVA, Switzerland — A senior World Health Organization official said that so-called vaccine passports for COVID-19 should not be used for international travel because of numerous concerns, including ethical considerations that coronavirus vaccines are not easily available globally. At a press briefing yesterday, WHO emergencies chief Dr Michael Ryan said there are “real practical and ethical considerations” for countries considering using vaccine certification as a condition for travel, adding the UN health agency advises against it for now. “Vaccination is just not available enough around the world, and is not available certainly on an equitable basis,” Ryan said. WHO has…