Covid19 in evacuation shelters – but Vincentians don’t want vaccine

From left: Evadney Yorke, Sharon Pope, Keturah Pope at the shelter at Brighton Methodist School. - Photo by Katherine Renton
From left: Evadney Yorke, Sharon Pope, Keturah Pope at the shelter at Brighton Methodist School. - Photo by Katherine Renton

Searchlight newspaper, SVG, for Newsday

The covid19 pandemic respects no one – even the Vincentians who are staying in shelters in southern St Vincent while they wait to be allowed to return home.

They have been there for a month, since they were evacuated from their homes before the La Soufriere volcano first erupted on April 10.

Reluctance even to be tested for covid19 remains an issue, even though almost 50 people across eight shelters have tested positive for the virus.

Tamara Bobb, epidemiologist in the SVG Ministry of Health, told the Searchlight newspaper that as at May 12, 43 people at public shelters have tested positive. Four people in private shelters have also tested positive, and so did one person who came in contact with a shelter.

Of the eight shelters with cases, access has been prohibited to four, meaning no one is allowed to visit the shelters, nor are occupants allowed to leave.

Despite the presence of the virus, people are still resisting local authorities, who have been consistently urging evacuees, shelter workers and volunteers to be tested for the virus.

Chief medical officer, Dr Simone Keizer Beache commented, “We were just told that persons were refusing, they were claiming that we were being sent or were being paid to do certain things. Of course, that’s not true.

“We also, anecdotally, feel that persons are afraid of the test, they are suspicious of the testing.

“The whole idea of testing has been painted as an invasion of persons’ privacy and human rights and so on.”

She said there is a lot of resistance to testing that was not there before La Soufriere erupted.

Keizer-Beache also noted there was resistance to being vaccinated against covid19 before the eruption, which continues.

“If you go to a shelter, and you get five people who would do a test, you might get zero who would do the vaccine. That’s sort of how it is,” she said.

Denniesha Deane, an evacuee at the St Joseph’s Convent, Kingstown, told Searchlight this week that she did not want to be tested.

The 20-year-old, mother of a six-month-old baby, said she was tested once at the hospital, but if asked to do so now, she would say no.

She is also sure she does not want to be vaccinated.

Petit Bordel resident Asunda Matthews said she has no problem being tested. She recalled being scared to be tested at the Bethel High School shelter, but after she told the nurse to be gentle, the experience was okay.

“I have no problem doing it again,” she said.

But Matthews is not willing to be vaccinated.

“If somebody could come and sit down and explain and tell me... but because at the end of the day nobody never really come and sit down, talk to me to tell me what is what concerning the vaccine,” she said. “So I’m not really interested in the vaccine.

“But I have done a test, a covid test already. I do a test through my nostril. I’ve done one already.”

St Vincent and the Grenadines has a population of 109,000. As of May 10, 13,771 people had been vaccinated.

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