Thursday 30th October 2014 Ricardo Gladiator Welch Added Guardian Story By Richard Lord FORGET EBOLA JUST PLAY YUH MAS IN 2015??????? . . . . . . Chairman of the National Ebola Prevention Information and Response Team, Vice Chief of Defence Staff Brigadier General Anthony Phillips-Spencer, says the Carnival 2015 will go on despite the global concerns over the spread of the Ebola virus. He made the comment yesterday at a news conference at the Queen’s Park Savannah, Port-of-Spain, following a meeting with various stakeholder groups on how the Ebola threat would affect the annual festival. Among those who attended the meeting were representatives from Trinbago Unified calypsonians Organisation (Tuco), mas bands, Carnival fete promoters, mayors and chairmen of borough and regional corporations, permanent secretaries, business and private sector, members of civil society, vendors, media representatives and academics. Phillips-Spencer said they made that decision because the Ebola risk in T&T was very low although he admitted it was a situation which would be continually reviewed. National Carnival Commission (NCC) chair Allyson Demas said: “As far as the NCC is concerned we are proceeding with our plans for Carnival 2015.” Carnival is set for February 16 and 17 next year. National Security Minister Gary Griffith said citizens must discontinue attempts to link Carnival with Ebola and insisted the show was on. “If we think that we are half pregnant and wondering whether there is going to be Carnival or not, we are going to cripple Carnival even before it starts because this is a period that is very critical for the period... the planning, the preparations, the bookings... and because of that we need to be very careful,” Griffith said. He said there would be a continuous review of the situation on a daily basis by a team of officials from the Health and National Security Ministries. Griffith said any decision to stage the festival “should not be based on economics, emotion, fear or panic but on informed decisions.” He said the possible threat was not based on an accumulation of people in one specific area, as was the case at Carnival time, but the possibility of the virus’ infiltration into T&T. The minister admitted, however, that if there were to be any incidents of Ebola in T&T, citizens’ freedoms could be curtailed. “We might very well have a state of emergency, where persons cannot go out on the streets on a Friday evening,” he said, adding that he was trying to take away the focus by citizens of linking the national cultural extravaganza with Ebola. “There is no reason at this time to pull the plug on Carnival,” Griffith insisted. Brig: Risk level low Brigadier Phillips-Spencer said the team has developed an anti-Ebola strategy which included prevention and information components. Confirming that the country’s Ebola risk status was low, he noted there was not one case in this country yet. “This team has found no reason to advise the Cabinet or to make any recommendation that any major event should be discontinued. The risk level is insufficient to warrant any such recommendation,” Phillips-Spencer said. He said measures to prevent an Ebola incident in T&T were being “developed aggressively and intensively because we do not want to wait until there is an incident to begin to get ready.” He said the recently-appointed team had crafted the overall campaign for the response, information and prevention, and was looking at and costing specific measures which they would take back to Cabinet for specific resources. Meetings have already been held with the T&T Chamber of Industry and Commerce and civil organisations, he added. He said more intense requirements were being requested from people entering the country via the sea ports as well. “We want it to be so airtight that if there are any risk presented at our borders we can easily identify and contain that risk,” Phillips-Spencer told reporters.
Posted on: Thu, 30 Oct 2014 07:18:11 +0000
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