By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMAS Nurses Union President Amancha Williams said yesterday the union would only support the government’s proposed decision to end the COVID-19 emergency restrictions if a comprehensive plan is in place to mitigate potential virus spread.

Ms Williams spoke to The Tribune after Attorney General Carl Bethel told reporters on Tuesday the government wants to remove the COVID-19 emergency restrictions by August.

However, Mr Bethel noted doing so will heavily depend on infection rates and the behaviour of residents.

Asked if the BNU would support the move, Ms Williams said members would lend their support, but only on condition that officials have a proper plan in place.

She said the country cannot afford to let its guard down against the virus, even though cases and virus-related hospitalizations appear to be somewhat declining.

According to the latest data released by the Ministry of Health, 60 new cases were confirmed on Wednesday, pushing the nation’s tally to 12,467. Of this count, 703 of those cases are still active.

Meanwhile, 37 people are said to be in hospital sick with the virus.

“We still have some challenges with COVID-19 and I don’t want anyone to believe it’s gone and so you want to move forward with a plan,” Ms Williams said yesterday. “If you ain’t got no plan, you might as well stay where you’re at. It’s safety. You must have a plan, a strategic plan.

“Emergency orders can be moved, fine but you must have a plan and I hope in this interim, they are planning and not just going back to the same old things. Have everything up and running to be able to facilitate any outbreaks.

“Have a development team that is going to look at the various challenges so that we could be ready for anything that comes. Have a plan, a strategic plan and that’s the most important thing.

“Because CDC (US Centres for Disease Control) said with these vaccinations, at the end of the day you’re still going to need a booster so how are you going to deal with that and so all of these things have to be looked at.”

Yesterday, Ms Williams said she believes vaccinations are an important tool in helping to defeat the virus and agreed that more people need to take the shots in order for the country to move on from the pandemic.

However, she said the Minnis administration’s current methods to get more people vaccinated is not the way to go, calling the tactics “discriminatory”.

Pointing to the government’s proposed “vaccination day” and newly released measures for fully vaccinated people, the BNU president said the government must be careful not to infringe on people’s rights.

As it stands now, fully vaccinated people can now engage in private gatherings and other social events in homes and elsewhere provided all attendees are also fully vaccinated among other things.

But, Ms Williams contended yesterday that this is not healthy for a democratic nation.

“The major thing is education. You have to educate so at the end of the day continue to educate, continue to go to various institutions, various communities and educate,” she said.

“I can see you saying a free meal if you become vaccinated or a free grocery bag or something like that or things that you know people are really in need of like a free cell phone or something like that.

“But, you’re going to then tell me I cannot be on the road because I’m not vaccinated and supposed I don’t want to take it but because of my health so all of these variables have to be taken into consideration,” she added.

“You can’t just make a statement like that because you’re going to leave out a grouping of people and you’re not going to be fair. This is a democratic country so what are you saying that this isn’t democratic anymore? It’s based on if you’re vaccinated? No, and we have had a number of campaigning (for the next election).”

Yesterday, the BNU president also spoke on the many challenges still being faced by workers in the country’s health care system.

Key among these include staff shortage issues and poor working conditions.

“We have nurses leaving every day,” she said. “At Freeport, I was told 60 nurses left in a year so that is really serious and that’s not Nassau yet and out of that, probably only ten retired so it’s something to be looked at. People are tired and we’re losing nurses because they’re getting discouraged just because of how they’re being treated in this pandemic.”

As it relates to hospital working conditions, Ms Williams said the air conditioning system in several wards at Princess Margaret Hospital has been down for several weeks, something she said has been frustrating workers.

“The air conditioners are not working in various major wards, the medical area, the surgical area. Nurses are working with 15 to 21 patients with no air condition. Relatives have to bring fans for their loved ones,” she said.

“On the wards, you have diabetic foot wounds. Could you imagine, because of the heat, the sweat and the growth of germs. That’s why most hospitalisations have rules and regulations, and the temperature should be at a certain number… For four weeks, we can’t get the air conditioning up and running,” she said.

“Why are we operating a hospital in poor working conditions?”