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6/12/2020 Statement Number 2 by the Dominica Freedom Party on the New Corona Virus in Dominica April 14th 2020The Dominica Freedom Party (DFP) continues to encourage all citizens and residents of Dominica to adhere to the current advice of our public servants to practice social distancing, wear a mask and to respect the curfew and lockdown measures that are aimed at halting the spread of COVID-19 – the disease caused by the New Corona Virus.
But we recognize that our country is on the verge of a total economic disaster – the results of a double whammy – loss of CBI revenue and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic! While we must hope for the best as it relates to COVID-19, as a people we must prepare for the worst. A key challenge will be how to prevent the situation from becoming chaotic and how do we ultimately restore the economic health of our country. We shall address that in our next statement, but we pause to explain a bit on how the economy is going to be adversely affected, how the government finances will weaken significantly, and the difficulty that the government will experience in its effort to raise financing. Due to the virulence of the virus, the incidence of COVID-19 (the disease caused by the New Corona Virus) could greatly overwhelm the coping capacity of our health system in Dominica if we are not successful in adequately slowing the disease or preventing its further spread. This is likely even if we had prepared as best as we could to treat people who develop severe symptoms of the disease. Given that likelihood, all appropriate international assistance that our country can access at this point must be welcomed and, in that regard, we welcome the assistance from Cuba and the People’s Republic of China.
As of yesterday (Thursday 25th March) according to the government of Dominica, there were 11 confirmed cases of COVID 19 and there were 29 persons under observation – persons who came into contact with one of the two initial cases. This can quickly become a nightmare for our country, as it did in China and as is happening in Italy and other countries. Since there is no treatment to cure or build human immunity to the virus at this point, the only weapon that the world has at its disposal is to slow the social spread of the virus in order to allow health systems to cope. |
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