By Prior Beharry
HEALTH Minister Terrence Deyalsingh was greeted with a coffin as a Christmas gift on Saturday morning.
United National Congress (UNC) activist Victor Roberts did a Facebook Live when he went to the Valsayn home of Deyalsingh on Christmas morning.
He told AZPNews.com that it was the same coffin he carried from Erin to Port-of-Spain from November 26 to 30 to highlight the Covid-19 deaths in Trinidad and Tobago. Roberts was the UNC candidate for La Brea in the last general elections.
In the live, he said Deyalsingh came out, saw the coffin and was asked to accept it as a gift that represented the number of deaths due to Covid-19 in Trinidad and Tobago.
Roberts said the deaths were caused by the incompetence of Deyalsingh as minister of health and the Government of T&T.
He made reference to the 37 Covid-19 deaths reported by the ministry on Christmas Eve – the highest daily figure since the pandemic started.
Roberts said, “We cannot accept 37 deaths… this will go up to 50 and 60 as we go forward.
“Because the Government has not put any stringent measure in place in relation to provide the necessary equipment, oxygen…”
He pointed to the print on his jersey which read “60 ventilators unacceptable.”
Roberts said people were dying because they had no beds, nurses, doctors and ventilators.
He said, “So what should we do? Put our hands up in the air and surrender or should we allow our citizens to continue to lie in this casket. This is unacceptable.”
Roberts said there was no better time to bring a present for the minister on behalf of the citizens who die due to Covid-19 because of his negligence and Government’s.
He told AZPNews.com that he took back the coffin and will present it again once people continue to die due to Covid-19 in T&T.
On Christmas Day, the ministry reported 20 more Covid-19 deaths and 420 new cases.
Since the pandemic started last year, there have been 2,738 deaths due to the coronavirus in T&T.
Calls to Deyalsingh’s cellphone went unanswered.
