CARIBBEAN ROUNDUP
ANTIGUA
Head of CARICOM, Antigua and Barbuda
Prime Minister, Gaston Browne
said that more attention needed to be
placed on intra-regional travel, as it is a
multi-billion, underutilized industry
He said “while we look exclusively to
foreign trade and tourists coming from
abroad, there are significant amounts
of intra-regional citizens and residents
contributing to a vibrant, intra-regional
travel industry,” he
said.
Browne said intraregional
travel will
also help the Caribbean
region.
During his inaugural speech recently
at CARICOM, Browne called for the
removal of inter-island travel bans.
Barbados has announced a travel
bubble that excluded islands with high
COVID-19 infections and Browne is
seeking to end that type of discrimination
within the Caribbean.
BARBADOS
Barbadians are urged to take advantage
of investment opportunities on the
stock markets in Jamaica and Trinidad
and Tobago, where trading is more
vibrant.
Delivering the second quarterly CARICOM
Investment Report for this year,
Professor Justin Robinson, director of
the Sagicor Cave Hill School of Business
and Management, expressed disappointment
that individuals in Barbados
and other Eastern Caribbean islands
were not engaging in cross border trade
on regional stock exchanges.
He said there are opportunities to
place “your money within our region
and earn quite solid returns, and remind
you these are returns
in US dollars.”s
The CARICOM
Investment Report on
the region’s six stock
exchanges, forms part of the thrust
of the Cave Hill School of Business to
zoom in on private sector investment
and performance in the region and
encourage greater buying and selling
of shares.
Robinson said he believed greater
awareness among residents across the
region could serve as a catalyst in
removing the regulatory and other barriers
that affect people’s ability to move
money across the region.
HAITI
The government of Haiti recently
received 500,000 doses of COVID-19
vaccines donated by the United States
through the COVAX facility.
The country is the fourth in the
region to receive these donated shipments,
after Honduras, El Salvador and
Bolivia with a total of 4,008,000 doses
Caribbean L 4 ife, JULY 30-AUG. 5, 2021
Updated daily at www.caribbeanlifenews.com
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines’ Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves addresses the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly
at the U.N. headquarters Friday, Sept. 27, 2019. Associated Press/Kevin Hagen, File
delivered so far.
Pan American Health Organization,
(PAHO) Director, Dr. Carissa Etienne
said the arrival of these vaccines is
quite promising and now the challenge
is to get them to the people that need
them the most.
The donation is
part of the US government’s
plan to increase
COVID-19 vaccination
coverage in other
countries around the
world, counter new waves of infection,
and prioritize vaccination of health care
workers and other vulnerable populations
in neighbouring countries in need
of vaccines.
The US government has pledged to
donate some 12 million COVID-19 vaccine
doses to countries in the Caribbean
and Latin America.
JAMAICA
Jamaica has recorded no cases of
the Delta variant of COVID-19 that is
blamed for a new wave of deaths and
infections globally.
This is according to Minister of
Health, Dr. Christopher Tufton who
said the ministry has arranged for the
Pan American Health Organization
(PAHO), the US-based Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC)
and the Trinidad-based Caribbean Public
Health Agency (Carpha) to test samples
for any mutations that would pose
a concern.
He said recently
health officials reported
to Cabinet on tests
they had received
from testing late the
previous week.
Tufton said there was a worrying
trend of Jamaicans seeking medical
help too late for COVID-19, resulting in
increased deaths.
Recently, health authorities reported
1,140 deaths so far. There are 5,278
active cases on the island.
MONTSERRAT
Former Chief Minister of Montserrat,
David Brandt was sentenced to 15
months in jail after he had earlier been
found guilty on six counts of sexual
exploitation and one count of perverting
the course of justice.
The court had set sentencing for July
14 for Brandt who had originally been
charged with seven sexual exploitation
charges, but the jury could not reach a
verdict on the first count. He had been
remanded into custody since the end of
the trial on June 30.
The case against the prominent attorney
dates back to Sept.
18, 2015 when Brandt
was initially arrested
and charged with one
count of unlawful sexual
intercourse with a minor in 2010.
In 2015, he was charged with conspiracy
to have sex with a minor, due to
developments that took place between
April and September 2015.
Brandt has always maintained his
innocence saying the allegations against
him were false.
But in November 2018, Brandt, who
served as chief minister from 1997 to
2001, was taken into custody by local
police assisted by members of the United
Kingdom’s National Crime Agency
and several charges were laid against
him, including two counts of child
sexual exploitation and one count of
perverting the course of justice.
ST. VINCENT
Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves
Continued on Page 18
THE NEWS FROM BACK HOME
Vincy PM takes stand against anti-vaxers
/www.caribbeanlifenews.com
/www.caribbeanlifenews.com