FIND THE LATEST NEWS UPDATED EVERY DAY AT CARIBBEANLIFENEWS.COM
Vol. 32, Issue 35 QUEENS/LONG ISLAND/BRONX/MANHATTAN Aug. 27-Sept. 2, 2021
VACCINE
MANDATE
BATTLE
CARICOM countries face opposition
to COVID shot requirements
By Bert Wilkinson
Police were called to Guyana’s
education ministry’s head office
on Tuesday to evict staff members
who had entered the building
without proof of vaccination
as a growing number of state
agencies are now moving to shut
out the unvaccinated staff and
visitors as tensions rise in the
region over efforts by authorities
to hike the number of people
taking COVID-19 jabs.
Tuesday’s incident was the
most serious in the south Caribbean
so far, coming weeks after
mass protests in the eastern part
of the 15-nation bloc-in St. Vincent
and neighboring Barbados,
largely. Resistance to efforts by
governments to force vaccine
mandates on citizens boiled over
in July when Vincentian Prime
Minister Ralph Gonsalves was hit
in the head and injured by a stone
thrown by an angry protestor as
he was on his way to parliament
to amend legislation to require
vaccine mandates. He was flown
to Barbados for emergency treatment,
has recovered and is back
at his desk. His female attacker
has been charged and is before
the courts.
In Barbados as well, Prime
Minister Mia Mottley’s cabinet
this week backed away from
plans to introduce vaccine mandates,
saying after examining a
legal opinion on the issues that
“we are philosophically opposed
to the mandate of vaccine. That
is not who we are as a people.
Philosophically, I personally and
most of my cabinet have agreed
that we should not mandate vaccines.
For those of you who are
ambivalent I ‘gine (going to be)
be straight. I coming to help persuade
you because I believe vaccines
will save your lives,” Mottley
said in a national address.
The cabinet’s new position
has come in the wake of the
overnight formation of a number
of civic organizations opposed to
mandates including one representing
nurses and other frontline
workers in Barbados and St.
Vincent who were being lined up
to accept the mandate.
In the Guyana Ministry of
Education’s fiasco this week,
authorities acknowledged that
police were called in to escort
away those who had turned up
without their vaccination cards
or without their weekly PCR
tests results. The ministry said it
was also ordering supervisors to
keep tabs on staff to ensure they
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul speaks to reporters after a ceremonial swearing-in ceremony
at the state Capitol, Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2021, in Albany, N.Y. Associated Press/Hans
Pennink
Immigrant advocates applaud Governor
Hochul’s school masking mandate
By Nelson A. King
The New York Immigration
Coalition (NYIT), an umbrella
organization of immigration
advocacy groups in the state, has
applauded Gov. Kathy Hochul
for mandating the wearing of
masks in schools.
“Thank you, Gov. Hochul,
for recognizing the importance
of masking for protecting the
health and safety of students
and school personnel,” said
Murad Awawdeh, NYIT’s executive
director, on Tuesday.
“But to truly protect the
health of the entire school community,
the governor must
include a universal vaccine
mandate for all school staff and
students 12 years and older who
are eligible to receive the vaccine,”
he added. “It’s the right
thing to do to ensure that our
schools stay open, our students
and school staff remain healthy,
and our communities can combat
the Delta variant.”
During her first day as New
York’s Governor, Hochul directed
the Department of Health to
make masks mandatory for anyone
entering New York’s public
schools.
The announcement follows
Mayor Bill De Blasio’s order
that New York City teachers and
other Department of Education
Continued on Page 12 Continued on Page 12
/CARIBBEANLIFENEWS.COM