Farley Augustine: Some still don’t know who is ‘essential’

KINNESHA GEORGE-HARRY

Deputy Political Leader of the Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP), Farley Augustine, is calling on the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Executive Council to do what is necessary to ensure that non-essential workers stay at home.

Addressing members of the media on Tuesday, Augustine said the assembly needs to be very clear with workers about who are essential and who are non-essential.

“Administrators, let us not try to get all these people out to work, please. We have to be extremely clear on who must remain home and who must come to work.

“We can’t continue with our full-scale operations as we had previously, and so what is required is that we sacrifice by sending a significant portion of our working population home.”

Augustine said it should be very clear as there are still some categories of workers who are still unclear if they should be made to work or not since the announcement was made last week Thursday.

“You still need to shed some more load,” he said, adding that the single largest working division at this time should be the Division of Health, Wellness and Family Development.

Additionally, he is offering the services of Minority Councillor Dr Faith BYisrael to Tobago in the fight against covid19. BYisrael has a BSc in neuroscience from the University of Pittsburgh, a Master of Public Health degree and a Doctor of Public Health degree in Behavioural and Community Health Sciences from the Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh.

“When you are playing a game of chess or draughts, or checkers, the folks who are standing on the outside looking in at the game sometimes see moves that are not seen by the actual players. That has happened for a while re Dr Faith BYisrael’s response on behalf of the Minority with covid19-related issues. We are saying look, the time for standing above and looking on and giving suggestions… it might be well placed to have a seat at the table and to raise those issues directly.

“Given her experience and given her expertise and training, we spoke to Councillor Dr Faith BYisrael and she is willing to work along with the covid19 response team as we battle this together.

He also called on other relevantly qualified Tobagonians, even those living in Trinidad to offer their services in the fight against covid19.