The Turks and Caicos was raised to a level 4 category by the CDC.
The United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has placed several other Caribbean countries onto its highest risk travel category for the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic as countries continue to grapple with the latest wave of infections and deaths linked to the Omicron variant of the virus.
The CDC named the Bahamas, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, Grenada, Guyana, St. Kitts-Nevis, St. Lucia, Suriname as well as the Turks and Caicos Islands on the Level 4 category.
This is not the first time that the TCI has been placed at this category.
The CDC places a destination at Level 4 when more than 500 cases per 100,000 residents are registered in the past 28 days. The CDC advises travellers to avoid travel to Level 4 countries.
The British Virgin Islands had the biggest move upward in the list, moving from Level 1 or “low” risk last week, while Grenada moved from the Level 2 or “moderate” risk category it had last week.
Jamaica, Cuba, Saba, Saint Barthelemy and Sint Eustatius are the Caribbean countries in the Level 3 category, which applies to destinations that have had between 100 and 500 cases per 100,000 residents in the past 28 days.
Destinations carrying the “Level 2: Covid-19 Moderate” designation have seen 50 to 99 Covid-19 cases per 100,000 residents in the past 28 days.
Live Press Conference with Hon. Jamell Robinson
The Minister of Health has now confirmed this evening’s press conference at 6o’clock here on Radio Turks & Caicos.
Bahamas defends presence at EXPO 2020 Dubai
The Bahamas government has defended its decision to send a delegation to the Expo 2020 Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) saying it provides an opportunity for the Caribbean country to develop friendships and the tourism industry.
Several Caribbean countries are attending Expo 2020 Dubai that began late October last year and ends on March 31 this year. It is the first of its kind to be held in an Arab country.
On Monday, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between Minister of Foreign Affairs and Public Service Fred Mitchell and Sheikh Shakhboot bin Nahyan Al Nahyan, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the United Arab Emirates.
A statement issued by the Bahamas Information Services, said the MoU “begins a fruitful relationship between The Bahamas and UAE.
“The UAE government is committed to providing technical assistance through their technical assistance programme. Embedded in the agreement, is a provision that at least 50 per cent of the participants in the training programme are women.
“Both The Bahamas and UAE are committed to working together on several fronts for the mutual advancement of both countries. The exchange of information will be invaluable as The Bahamas continues to push through the setbacks of the pandemic toward national and economic growth,” the statement added.
Earlier, Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis defended the presence of the delegation as the media here reported that some Bahamians were questioning the size of the delegation and the cost of the event.
“We consider Expo fundamentally to be about the relationship between the peoples of the world, the promotion of friendship and co-operation through culture, and the unyielding capacity of human beings to pursue a higher order of civilisation, through innovation and adaptation,” Davis said.
“It is a chance for countries to get to know each other better or perhaps, introduce themselves to each other for the first time. Many Bahamians here in Dubai have been surprised at how many people have never heard of The Bahamas. Our presence and participation are opportunities for both friendship and tourism.”
Davis said it is sometimes difficult for the voices of small countries like The Bahamas to be heard on the world stage, adding “but we know that when we sing and dance and fully express our creative, cultural identity, we make a much bigger splash in the global imagination”.
He said the presence at the Expo allows for the Caribbean country to build friendships as well as explore joint opportunities.
“Whether it is an investment in a growing technological future, or acting jointly to address the existential challenges of climate change, for each of us here, for all of us around the world, we can be certain that we are all in this together,” he said, thanking he host country for being able to participate in the event.
Source- CMC
Windies U19-Head coach lauds squad for playing with character amid challenges
West Indies Under-19 head coach Floyd Reifer has praised the teenage squad for the character they displayed in their second match of the ICC Under-19 World Cup, following an opening defeat, and said he wanted to see them improve even more when they face Sri Lanka on Friday.
He said the team played a good day of cricket here on Monday, beating Scotland by seven wickets in their second game of the tournament at Warner Park.
West Indies lost their opening match to Australia in Guyana last Friday, and the hosts hit back strongly, bundling out the Scots for a mere 95 in the 36th over.
“I think coming out of the first game’s defeat, the young lads showed a lot of character in bouncing back from that first defeat against Australia. Obviously, there would have been a lot of nerves going into that game; only if we had batted a bit better in that game we could have won that game also. Coming into the second game, we showed some good character … we played a good game of cricket,” Reifer said.
“In the team meeting before that match, we spoke about ticking off a lot of the boxes that we wanted to tick off in the different departments so I thought that the bowlers bowled well.”
Making specific reference to left-arm fast-medium seamer Shiva Sankar who claimed 3-17 from his seven overs, accounting for the first three of Scotland’s wickets to fall, Reifer said he bowled “with good control and good discipline”, backed by McKenny Clarke. He also singled out Onaje Amory.
“So, it was a good bowling performance from the bowling unit. I thought we bowled well in partnerships and it was backed up by good fielding. In the fielding department, we were very sharp…. We took some very good catches,” the coach said.
Reifer said going into their next game, the young West Indies team had to replicate the approach they took in the first match.
“We’ve got to continue that trend. We gonna again look at the opposition and look at our game and see the areas we can continue to improve in, continue to tick those boxes and get ready for the next game on Friday,” he said.
The home side will face Sri Lanka Under-19s in their final Group D match on Friday, with the top two teams progressing to the next round.
Source-CMC
Prime Minister Mottley leads BLP to consecutive sweep of the Parliament
Barbadian voters bought into the philosophy that they are “safer with Mia” wholesale and re-elected the ruling Barbados Labour Party (BLP) into government with a consecutive clean sweep of the 30 seats in Parliament.
Preliminary results showed that the BLP had won all the seats in the election that Prime Minister Mia Mottley called 18 months ahead of the constitutional deadline and in the process allowed the party to become only the second political organisation in the Caribbean to sweep all the seats in an election on consecutive occasions.
The other time that has been achieved was in Grenada when Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell led his New National Party (NNP) in winning all 15 seats in 2018.
Mottley made it seven out of eight victories in the St. Michael North East constituency, easily defeating the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) candidate, Damien Griffith by a margin of 3216 to 476. Roy Turney of the BFP polled 48 votes.
Mottley, who had already signalled that this would be her last general election, told supporters that she would be announcing her new Cabinet on Monday and that later on Thursday, she along with Dale Marshall will go to meet with President Dame Sandra Mason to be sworn into office. Marshall returns as Attorney General.
Mottley defended the decision to call the election ahead of the constitutional dadine, saying it was important to “take fresh guard” as the island moves into the future to deal with a changing global socio and economic situation.
“I thank, you, you the people of Barbados fo accepting us at our word that if we do not fix our problems starting from tomorrow we will not be able to guarantee safety to our people in the next 10 to 15 years”.
Mottley said the three week campaign had been “rough” telling supporters “we wanted to start 2022 as far as possible on a fresh guard…and you have given us that opportunity”.
She recalled that on May 27, 2018, she had indicated to the nation that “too whom much is given much is expected,” adding “I repeat tonight that that is our commitment to you the people of this nation.
”I promised you …we would be the opposition to ourselves and regrettably there were those who felt that they would spawn their own opposition and do the things that would make this country almost difficult to govern,” she said, an apparent reference to Bishop Joseph Artherely, who had been a member of the victorious 2018 BLP team, but left to become Opposition Leader.
Bishop Joseph, who headed an alliance into the general election, was among the victims of the new clean sweep.
“Tonight the people of Barbados have spoken,” she said, vowing the new administration would continue to put the nation’s welfare above any parliamentary majority.
Mottley said she also wanted to address the allegation that her decision to call the general election ahead of the early was to facilitate a one party state in the country, “when in truth and in fact our Constitution admits in a multi-party democracy of the people giving all of the seats to one entity.
“I am a child of democracy I know what ir is to have known every single prime minister in this nation….and it is that solemn commitment in front of you the people of this nation, in front of the people of the world and in particular in front of my parliamentary colleagues that I swear today that we shall continue to keep the best precept of democracy, transparency and accountability alive for the people of this nation.”
Earlier, the leader of the main opposition Democratic Labour Party (DLP), Verla De Peiza, conceded defeat, extending congratulations to the BLP.
De Peiza, who led the DLP into a general election for the first time, was soundly defeated in the St. Lucy constituency, considered a strong hold of the party, polling1, 095 votes as against 2.038 for the BLP’s Peter Phillips.
De Peiza said that while she was conceding and congratulating the Prime Minister Mottley led BLP, she had no immediate plans to step down as political leader.
“”We will make those decisions at a later stage,” she said, adding that “I am proud of what I have established.”
She said that the voter turnout in the election “continues to be “depressing” adding that ‘serious work will have to be done going forward.
“It was a reckless time to call an election, depressed voter turnout,” she said, adding that she was also “disappointed with the results”.
In 2018, Mottley led the BLP to a 30 nil trouncing of the then Freundel Stuart DLP government and De Peiza took over the leadership of the party that same year and had hoped to reverse the fortunes of the decades old political party.
“The election has all been about Mia Mottley and she held on to the swing of 2018,” said political scientist, Devaron Bruce, as political commentators called on De Peiza to step down.
Senior lecturer at the University of the West Indies, Dr. Tennyson Joseph said that the DLP leader should step aside and the results were “a resounding defeat of her and the party”.
A total of 108 candidates, representing seven political parties and nine independents contested the election that political observers had said would have been a straight fight between the BLP and the DLP.
Despite a last minute unsuccessful attempt by a member of a small political party here to ask the High Court to postpone the election on the grounds that thousands of Barbadians, who have tested positive for the coronavirus (COVID-19), the Electoral and Boundaries Commission (EBC) said the poll was held without any major controversy.
The EBC said that 266,330 persons were eligible to cast ballots in the election and political commentators on television said it appears that the turnout was below 50 per cent.
Barbados is the latest Caribbean country to be staging a general election during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic following countries like St. Kitts-Nevis, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Bahamas, St. Lucia, Cayman Islands and the Turks and Caicos Islands.
When she announced the date for the snap election last month, Mottley, the first woman to head a government here, said that in recent days, she had observed what she termed “the silly season” defining how Barbadians regarded the future socio-economic development of the island, at a time when it was also dealing with the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
“And hence our manifesto was entitled Our Barbados-Owning our Future. It is our solemn commitment that there are many things that must now be on the front burner and that is why we came to you earlier.
“We could have stayed on for another 18 months and drawn salaries and done just enough to keep us going, but we understood that it would not be enough to keep this country safe but to build the platform for prosperity,” Mottley said.
Source-CMC
Fauci predicts Omicron peak by mid-February
Dr. Anthony Fauci delivered promising news about the Omicron variant on Wednesday and said he predicts most states will be past their peak by mid-February. He also noted that there is evidence that parts of New York and New Jersey have already peaked or are about to turn the corner. Despite the positive news, CDC forecast models suggest that U.S. death totals will likely continue to increase over the next four weeks.
The models predict about 32,000 more Americans could die from COVID-19 over just the next two weeks and say that, by February 12, about 931,000 total lives could be lost in the U.S. to the virus.
The announcement comes as the new White House website offering free COVID-19 tests was visited over 27 million times since launching on Tuesday. It is unknown how many households ordered tests at this time. In addition, the Biden administration announced it will make 400 million non-surgical N95 masks available for free at tens of thousands of pharmacies and community health centers. An official expects the program "fully up and running" by early February.
Source-ABC
The Weeknd makes Billboard history after Dawn FM becomes top-selling album in the world
Congratulations are in order for The Weeknd, who just made Billboard history! His new album, Dawn FM, is currently the number one album in the world even though it has yet to have a physical release. Currently, it is only available on digital platforms.
According to a press release, Dawn FM also places 24 of The Weeknd's songs on the Global 200, which breaks the all-time record for the most songs charted by a male solo artist. The accolades don't stop there -- the "Save Your Tears" singer has another album -- aside from Dawn FM -- charting on the Billboard 200 top 10. His The Highlights has risen to number six while Dawn hovers in second, giving him the rare honor of having two studio efforts atop the prestigious chart.
Dawn is also making major waves in the streaming world after fans listened to it over 500 million times across Spotify, Apple Music and other services. His "Sacrifice" track went to number one on Spotify and Apple Music notes it is currently charting in over 130 countries.
Considering this album was a surprise and The Weeknd has yet to release physical copies of his new record, it stands to go to number one on the Billboard 200 once it hits the shelf -- which would follow his 2020 effort After Hours.
Source- ABC
Temporary Closure of Fisheries and Marine Resource Management Department - Providenciales
The department of Fisheries and Marine Resource Management wishes to advise the public of the closure of the Providenciales Office on January 21st, 2022, to facilitate deep cleaning and sanitization.
Normal operations will resume on January 24th, 2022.
We do apologize for any inconvenience caused; we thank you for your continued patience and understanding.
TCI BUSINESS PROSECUTED FOR EMPLOYING ILLEGAL WORKERS
The Immigration Taskforce from the Ministry of Immigration and Border Services has been carrying out active investigations and acted upon the company known as Ananda Ltd Trading, also known as KB Home Center to most– has been convicted of three counts of employing prohibited persons.
Acting on intelligence in June 2021, the Taskforce officers visited KB Home Center locations off Leeward Highway and in Five Cays and found the three persons, all Haitian nationals, working without permission. The persons were detained and have since been removed from the Turks and Caicos Islands, repatriated back to Haiti.
Following the Immigration Department’s investigation, Ananda Ltd Trading was charged and pleaded guilty to three counts of employing a prohibited person. The company was sentenced at court to a fine of $2,000 – or 30 days imprisonment – on each count.
The Head of Immigration Taskforce, Tito Forbes, said, “This was an operation informed by our immigration intelligence unit and which led to a detailed investigation by my officers, resulting in the conviction of a business here in Providenciales for employing illegal workers. Businesses that employ illegal workers are a huge part of our challenge. Migrants risk their lives trying to get to TCI because they think they can find work and live here illegally”.
The Minister of Immigration and Border Services, Hon. Arlington Musgrove, said, “Employing illegal workers is a criminal offense, and not one that is without a victim, and rogue employers have an unfair advantage over legitimate businesses who do play by the rules. The TCI is working hard to combat illegal migration, and businesses offering employment to illegal migrants are only harming the efforts of our country in tackling this issue.
OECS Commission to discuss geothermal energy for providing energy beyond electricity
The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Commission will later this month host a webinar on geothermal energy, saying the use of the product has been an ongoing subject of research and exploration within the sub-region.
It said that the January 25 event will be held under the theme, “Geothermal Energy: Providing Opportunities Beyond Electricity”.
The Commission said that a recent study of three Caribbean islands, Dominica, Montserrat, and Nevis, examined opportunities for geothermal energy beyond electricity generation.
“Around the world, more countries are capitalising on their geothermal resources, not only for electricity generation from a renewable affordable source, but also to support various industries within their economies.”
The St. Lucia-based OECS Commission said that with the renewed global emission targets agreed upon at the recently concluded United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, it is imperative that OECS member states fully explore the use of renewable energy sources.
“These efforts are needed to achieve net zero by 2050 – a global target set at COP26 – in which the total amount of carbon dioxide put into the atmosphere equals the total amount removed. This means that the use of fossil fuels must be reduced and eventually phased out to meet this target.”
The Commission said that given the region’s vast potential for power generation using geothermal energy, and the environmental and economic benefits to be derived, it has become necessary to explore the full potential of this energy source.
“Currently, Guadeloupe is the only country with a geothermal energy plant in the Caribbean, which produces five per cent of the island’s electricity,” it said, adding that in Iceland, about 100 per cent of electricity production is from renewable energy sources, with 73 per cent coming from hydropower and 27 per cent from geothermal power.
The Commission said an estimated 85 per cent of all houses in Iceland are heated using geothermal energy and that Kenya is another country that has capitalised on the use of geothermal energy, currently generating 630 megawatts of power from the renewable source.
Geothermal heating is a major success factor for one of Kenya’s largest flower exporters, Oserian, which allows the company to sell 380 million rose stems annually, which according to the Company’s managing director would be impossible without 24-hour heating of greenhouses with geothermal steam.
“The availability of this natural resource in the Caribbean region creates the potential for OECS member states to benefit in a similar way in the years ahead,” the Commission said, asking several questions regarding the use of geothermal and the socio-economic development of the sub-region.
Source-CMC