By Sue-Ann Wayow
THE Covid-19 pandemic has cost taxpayers $480 million to date says Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh.
And at the Ministry of Health’s virtual press conference on Saturday, the minister thanked all taxpayers for their contributions.
He said, “From the start of Covid, preparing for Covid till now, the Ministry of Health has spent $480million on the Covid response. And that number, is it sustainable? We will have to continue to provide it but think about what that money could have done for other aspects of healthcare.”
Deyalsingh said, “It is a big undertaking and all of this have been provided at absolutely no cost to the Covid patient. We must thank the taxpayer for this. We always thank the healthcare workers and I thank them again, but let’s now thank the taxpayer. The taxpayer has rushed to the rescue of Trinidad and Tobago to the tune of $480million that is almost half of a billion TT dollars. That is the direct financial cost.”
Deyalsingh said, the Ministry of Health will continue to liaise with the Ministry of Finance for continued monetary support especially with the upcoming Budget in October.
Infrastructure, human resource and consumables were the ministry’s most expensive items, Deyalsingh said.
He gave examples of upgraded facilities, quarantine cost and personal protection equipment as some of the ministry’s expenditure.
He also asked the public to not to become numb to the daily death figures, seeing it as just a statistic.
The minister reminded that every life lost was one that will cannot be replaced and that daily, there were families grieving due to loss of loved ones.
This man is probably the worst excuse for a minister. Apart from having no mind of his own and following his esteemed leader blindly, he’s a thief. I wonder how his family feels knowing that they are enjoying the fruits of his white collar crimes while innocent citizens are suffering daily. While they ride around in their fancy cars and eat their five meals a day, citizens have not even one meal….what they have, they give their children. He should look at himself and his team to locate the millions he’s claiming was spent on covid.
The sad thing is the people who voted them into power, again, should by right be the ones suffering under their dictatorship rule, but as it is the ones who fought against them, now have to battle against their supporters for hampers etc provided by caring citizens NOT their leaders. Trinbagonians are now being thrust back into slavery and massa days where the head massa is no more than a glorified slave himself. It’s a shame….I wish there was some way all the good hard-working citizens could leave this place until he and his team is removed.