As the coronaviruses related death toll continues to rise at least one other Vincentian student has sought out Asberth News Network to register her personal safety concerns.<\/p>\n
This particular student is on the Mona Campus of the University of the West Indies in Jamaica where a suspected case of coronavirus infected individual was thought to be present.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a morning when we are getting reports of people, certainly in parts of St. Andrew, talking about a case here in Jamaica and let me tell you. We\u2019ve got to be careful. We don\u2019t want to spread panic, this is already a serious threat. We just came off the phone with the Health Minister via contact \u2013 there is no suspected case of the coronavirus at the University Hospital or anywhere in Jamaica. No suspected cases. What we can tell you that there are tests being done on an individual, an individual. But there is no suspicion… out of an abundance of caution they are doing tests. One person who came in from China two weeks ago with flu like symptoms\u2026 Just to be sure it\u2019s either or not the coronavirus\u2026 so please don\u2019t spread panic or alarm,\u201d a University official said via an apparent WhatsApp voice note circulated last Tuesday.<\/p>\n
A few hours later Jamaican media reported an emergency press conference called by their local Health Minister Dr. Christopher Tufton to address the mounting panic that resulted from the \u201cabundance of caution\u201d that led University Hospital doctors there to quarantine and test an individual that was transferred for their attention.<\/p>\n
Thankfully the authorities there have been able to douse the rising dread.<\/p>\n
This was confirmed by the same Vincentian student who, on Tuesday, said \u201cme scared. My hall deh right dehso, de hospital deh right dehso me cyar bother wid disya. Me wah go home.\u201d In a follow up interview one day later, she said via Facebook Messenger \u201cas far as I know [the panic has totally died away]. Things are back to normal. I didn\u2019t even hear a single conversation about it today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier this week ANN published an article relating the situation being experienced by Vincentians studying in the Suzhoz province which is close to the epicentre of the virus outbreak \u2013 Wuhan, China.<\/p>\n
There, two Vincentian females have quarantined themselves in their dormitories along with other Caribbean students in the Chinese leg of a UWI Software Engineering course. Safe, for the time being, their now constant worry is the slowly depleting stock of food and living resources, face masks and cleaning essentials.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday one of the Suzhoz based Vincentians assured ANN that their anxiety levels have not lessened as \u201ca lot of roads and airports are closing and airlines are terminating flights out of China.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even though her calls to the Vincentian Embassy on Taiwan (which was opened in August 2019) \u201chave not gone through\u201d just yet, an email by their former principal (now) Ambassador Andrea Bowman was sent to \u201cwish us well and so.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked whether Ambassador Bowman\u2019s email contained any \u201cconcrete plans as to what the Embassy can do,\u201d the marooned student replied \u201cno, not as yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile the University of the West Indies have promised to \u201cpurchase and distribute essential supplies to\u201d the approximately 30 students. Now that a list of necessary resources was provided by the mixed grouping of Jamaican, Barbadian and Vincentian Soft ware Engineers in training \u2013 the promise of replenished stock is welcomed news. UWI is yet to commit to a delivery timeline though.<\/p>\n
The University has reassured them that their \u201chealth and well-being will remain the priority\u2026 and that they [UWI] would do anything reasonable to protect us from increased or unnecessary exposure,\u201d the second Vincentian student disclosed.<\/p>\n
As international media continue to report on the rising death counts and infection rates globally Vincentians at home are themselves sharing their concerns with ANN.<\/p>\n
One tourism service provider on Bequia confided \u201cthis is crazy. Yesterday I saw many tourists come off a cruise and some had the cold, with sneezing, coughing etc and I thought \u2018how easy it will be for that virus to spread here.\u2019 We are not ready and we can\u2019t deal with something like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
On mainland St. Vincent a mini-van owner and taxi operator was concerned that \u201c\u2026 the most they trying to do is to quarantine people and cut off travel all over the world. Weh you think gwine happen if that Shxt end up and touchdown in Vincy? We are so ill-equipped to deal with that. It\u2019s gonna wipe us out. It really\u2019s gonna wipe us out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile local filmmaker Akley Olton observed \u201cone of the first things that come to my mind is how we in Vincy are prepared to deal with this outbreak if it\u2019s supposed to get to our shores. So I\u2019m already thinking about the next shipping freight that\u2019s coming in and if it\u2019s coming from China and I\u2019m wondering if the hands were clean when they put the crates and boxes on that ship or if one of these new vehicles that we\u2019re importing \u2013 if it drove through a puddle that was close to that market which is the ground zero of the coronavirus.\u201d<\/p>\n
Referring to the Vincentian colloquial love of \u201cwild meat\u201d while referencing what some experts have said is the link between the novel coronaviruses and the \u201cwildlife markets such as the Huana Seafood Wholesale Market at the center of the Wuhan epidemic,\u201d Olton also encouraged Vincentians towards better environmental habits.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a valuable and important part of our identity \u2026 we eat \u2018guana and we eat manicou and you might eat some tattoo\u2026 but the other thing that I think we have to be mindful of is that we have to keep the environment healthy so that these animals could stay clean and healthy so that when we consume them, they\u2019re not sick and activate these crazy epidemics which bring about this huge amount of fear\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a further word of advice the award winning Vincentian creator said \u201cI would encourage us Vincies to start preparing for this virus by cleaning up our environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Attempts to discern the national emergency plan, in this regard, from Health and Education Ministry officials are being studiously avoided.
\njp.schwmon.vincy@gmail.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As the coronaviruses related death toll continues to rise at least one other Vincentian student has sought out Asberth News Network to register her personal safety concerns. This particular student is on the Mona Campus of the University of the West Indies in Jamaica where a suspected case of coronavirus infected individual was thought to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":8924,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-local-news"],"yoast_head":"\n