By Chantalé Fletcher
TOBAGONIANS are fearful of getting tested for Covid-19.
This according to Secretary of the Division of Health, Wellness and Family Development Tracy Davidson-Celestine responding to a question from AZPNews.com at the Tobago’s virtual presser on Thursday.
Davidson-Celestine said, “If we have increase for demand of testing then the system would have to respond by ensuring that we are able to build systems out, in order to test persons going forward.”
The secretary was confident that the ability to test now far exceeds the number of persons who are willing to come forward to be tested.
“We don’t have any challenges right now with our ability to test. We might probably have more of a challenge with those persons who are unwilling to come forward to get tested,” Davidson-Celestine said.
She said there was some fear within the community to get tested.
Davidson-Celestine urged persons to come forward, so that they can be monitored through the home monitoring arrangements and if they are not well, will be treated for in the facilities of care.
She said the Covid-19 task force was newly formed and she was unable to say if any new measures were implemented.
Davidson-Celestine said the task force has goals and objectives to ensure that the system is robust as possible to receive guest when they come into the island.
She said the County Medical Officer of Health was present at the opening up of the borders last Saturday at the Piarco International Airport and lessons learned will be applied in Tobago.
Davidson-Celestine said, “Our concern remains the variant which are present in some of those countries where we receive our guests in large parts.
“So, we have to ensure we get to that point of welcoming them. We are able to cross all of out T’s and dot all our I’s because it can have consequences for those unvaccinated.”
In an appeal for unvaccinated persons to get vaccinated, Davidson-Celestine said, “When we are fully opened up, we are not so sure what the consequences can be from persons interacting.”
