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Caribbean Life, April 7-13, 2022
CARIBBEAN ROUNDUP
ANTUGUA
Antigua and Barbuda will hold a “scaleddown”
carnival lasting seven days this year
and the island will also allow unvaccinated
nationals to return home under certain
conditions.
A government statement said that Minister
of Creative Industries, Michael Browne
has assured that there will be no superspreader
events during the festival that is
held annually from the
end of July to the first
Tuesday in August.
He anticipates that
T-shirt mas and city
blocks filled with cultural exhibits of one
sort or another will mark carnival 2022,
marking the second consecutive year that
the island had not been able to put on its
full array of activities due to the COVID-19
pandemic that has killed 135 people and
infected 7,395 others since March 2020.
He said Cabinet agreed to assist calypsonians,
soca artistes and others who require
the need of a studio, in order to advance
their cultural art form.
Browne said regarding the discussions
on relaxing COVID-19 restrictions as they
pertain to a several nationals wanting to
return home but are not vaccinated, the
deputy chief medical officer and the chief
health inspector were invited to address
the ministers and and “following intense
discussions, with safety and security as
underlying concerns, the Cabinet agreed to
allow unvaccinated nationals to return to
their homeland.”
But it said they would only be allowed
to to do so after taking either a PCR test
or a rapid antigen test, within four days of
departure to Antigua and that on arrival
the person will agree to spend seven or 10
days in quarantine with a tracking bracelet
and will take another test prior to joining
family members and friends.
BARBADOS
Barbados will be using new look banknotes
made of polymer by the end of the
year.
Central Bank of Barbados Governor, Cleviston
Haynes in making the announcement
said: “The bank remains committed
to reducing the use of cash and ensuring
that Barbadians have a range of payment
options available to them.
“At the same time,
however, we recognize
that cash remains popular.
There are still many
Barbadians for whom
cash is their principal means of payment
and others who continue to use it in combination
with other options.”
He said polymer banknotes have become
increasingly common in recent years as
banknotes manufacturers have found ways
to incorporate novel and varied security
features in them.
The governor confirmed that the functionality
was the rational for change.
Haynes also revealed that the banknotes
will have a new design, but some familiar
elements would not change.
CARIBBEAN
The Caribbean Community (CARICOM)
has called for a policy to deal with rising
food prices globally, as they joined their
Latin American counterparts in discussing
the agri-food sector, which is being regarded
as a key to move beyond the crisis that
has engulfed the world.
Guyana’s Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar
Mustapha told the 37th Regional Conference
for Latin America and the Caribbean
of the Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO) that food prices had become a “very,
very important issue” around the world.
“What is taking place,
we have had the COVID-19
pandemic for two years,
we have had the war in
Russia and Ukraine and
we have had other issues that exacerbate
the situation with food prices around the
world,” Mustapha told the recent conference,
which was being attended by ministers
and delegations both virtually and in
person.
Mustapha, who was elected vice-chair
of the five-day conference, said: “We as
a Caribbean, especially in CARICOM, we
are looking at proposals and ways how to
bring down the food prices and reduce our
import bill.”
GUYANA
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has
expressed an interest in helping Guyana to
boost its agriculture production,.
This move, Guyana President Dr. Irfaan
Ali said would be in keeping with government’s
vision to make Guyana the food
basket of the region and
build a framework that
would ensure Guyana has
the greatest level of productivity.
Dr. Ali, who recently returned from the
UAE said 90 percent of the conversation
with the leadership of the UAE and private
sector, was not on oil and gas, but most of
the conversation was on food security and
agriculture diversification and production.
Ali was in the UAE to attend the Caribbean
Investment Forum (CIF 2022) and
the Global Business Forum LATAM, where
agriculture was the main focus.
Ali said Guyana has all the competitive
advantages, noting that the only task now
is catalyzing it into action so that the country
and its people could benefit.
Dr. Ali told a ceremony to launch the
black belly sheep program in Region 5
(Mahica-Berbice that the revenue from oil
and gas must be used to build the country’s
agricultural system, infrastructure
and technology.
HAITI
The United Nations Development Program
(UNDP) said in a new report that
Haiti still to reach two percent of its population
of its vaccination drive against the
COVID-19.
It said that indicates
only a tiny portion of
COVID-19 vaccines have
been administered in
developing countries.
Haiti has recorded 827 deaths and 30,
511 infections over the past two years as a
result of the virus.
In the report, the UNDP said the situation
has widened the gap between rich and
poor, recalling that in September 2021,
the World Health Organization (WHO) set
an ambitious global target, calling for 70
percent of the global population to be vaccinated
by mid-2022.
It said at that point over three percent of
people in low-income countries had been
vaccinated with at least one dose, compared
to 60.18 percent in high-income countries.
TH E N EWS FROM BACK HOME
Updated daily at www.caribbeanlife.com
Barbados Central Bank Governor, Cleviston Haynes. Photo by George Alleyne
Continued on Page 16
Barbados to release new bank notes
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