UDP Wants Chebat Out and Slams MOE for Hybrid Re-start

The United Democratic Party is calling for the Minister of Health, Michel Chebat, to be removed and is criticizing the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic overall. At a press conference this morning at party headquarters the party made a list of demands, including the resignation –or removal– of the Minister of Health and Wellness. They also slammed the Ministry of Education for allowing hybrid learning to proceed during the country’s third wave of the pandemic. Speaking on that topic was Dr Shanikka Arnold, a public health doctor at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital.

Shanikka Arnold

Shanikka Arnold, Public Health Doctor, KHMH

“As the Government considers opening schools they should also consider a minimum standard requirement for decreasing the spread of COVID that all schools should achieve before they are allowed to resume. This governed were elected to carry out a mandate, and thus should take the responsibility of protecting all citizens from infection of this deadly virus, instead of putting that responsibility on boards of managements of schools, teachers and students. We were assured by the current Minister of Education, that the considerations for the reopening of schools would be guided by the health officials. Are we then to assume that the public  health officials guiding them believe that the two hundred cases per day is an acceptable number to open schools, when forty-five cases per day was not? The safety of our children, and indirectly, of the larger population should be of the utmost importance. And, if the health data suggest the continuing need for social and physical distancing, then the reopening of schools is counter intuitive to fight of COVID-19, at this time. Children do need to get back in school. They need social interaction and stimulation, but not at the expense of their wellbeing.”