COVID’s Effect on the Region: A Topic for CARICOM Inter-sessional

Dr. Carla Barnett

The effects of COVID-19 on regional economies and education systems will be a matter of priority at the thirty third CARICOM Heads of Government Inter-sessional Meeting. Secretary General Barnett says member states will be discussing ways in which the region can get back to normal in the face of COVID.

Dr. Carla Barnett, Secretary General, CARICOM

“One is that there are still a set of very young children who have not been able to be vaccinated at the rate that we want. That is the five to eleven year olds. So, that is a priority. The idea that all our member states seem to be saying, we want to get schools back to normal, but as safely as possible. Therefore vaccinations are a part of that. The other priority of course is ensuring that as we open up our economies even more and more, because we have to, that we are incorporating and ensuring that social behavior is in keeping with the realities of a pandemic. We really cannot stay locked up, because if we stay locked up, people have to eat, they have to produce, they have to do their business every day. You can’t do that in an extremely constrained setting. So, the notion that we have to free up, that we have to open up, makes sense. We have to do it in keeping with what the scientific information says about how the pandemic is evolving, how the virus itself has evolved, and what the main concerns will be, which continue to be, we have to protect.”