Duke: Poor conditions at covid19 facilities

Watson Duke, leader of the Progressive Democratic Patriots, in a live video on social media on Tuesday, played a recording of an alleged covid19 patient who complained of poor conditions at Couva Hospital. In the recording, the “patient” complained that there were no basic amenities or proper care for special-needs patients. He said there was no quarantine and everyone was mixing.

“Who is separate here are the doctors and the nurses. They are strapped down and wrapped up in dey (sic) white suit. (In) the Couva building here is are three floors with one A/C for the whole building. There’s no quarantine, there’s no isolation or separation.” The man also complained about poor customer service.

Duke’s voice was heard in the recording, asking the man whether or not patients were showing signs of recovery. “Everybody in the same environment, nobody can get better. All 70 people here are in the same environment.” The man was heard complaining about the lack of attention for patients with special dietary needs.

“We have people here who (are) diabetic, hypertensive, and they giving everybody tea with milk and sugar. You can’t get milk without sugar; they not in charge of that. A diabetic person explained to them, ‘I can’t eat wholewheat bread’, to date the diet hasn’t changed, so the poor diabetic man leaving back his food,” the “patient” said.

Duke called on the government to shut down the country for a month, leaving only essential sectors open, and to improve the quality of care to covid19 patients in Couva.

“Allow basic utilities and payroll to operate, and shut the country down for one month. Leave things like groceries, gas stations open,” Duke said. He added that essential workers with no private transport shouldn’t be allowed to travel in public transport but provisions should be made to get them to and from work to limit contact and contamination. “This is not about bashing the government, but to pressure them to improve the health care,” Duke said.