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Saturday, March 1, 2025

Deyalsingh weeps, hugs health care worker

by

Radhica De Silva
1084 days ago
20220312
 Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh weeps as he delivers the feature address during the rededication ceremony of the Point Fortin Hospital on Saturday.

Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh weeps as he delivers the feature address during the rededication ceremony of the Point Fortin Hospital on Saturday.

RISHI RAGOONATH

 RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

 

On the day that five peo­ple died and 325 more were in­fect­ed with COVID-19, Health Min­is­ter Ter­rence Deyals­ingh broke pro­to­col and hugged Kevin Shade, su­per­vi­sor of the dai­ly paid staff at the Point Fortin Hos­pi­tal.

Deyals­ingh had been speak­ing at the hos­pi­tal's reded­i­ca­tion cer­e­mo­ny where he hailed health care work­ers as he­roes.

Union bat­tle songs were sung and an emo­tion­al Deyals­ingh asked for a nap­kin and wept be­fore invit­ing the au­di­ence to give a stand­ing ova­tion for all those who risked their lives car­ing for COVID-19 pa­tients.

The hos­pi­tal had been part of the par­al­lel health care sys­tem since May 2021 and was the first hos­pi­tal to be de­com­mis­sioned as a COVID fa­cil­i­ty.

Speak­ing to re­porters af­ter the func­tion, Deyals­ingh ex­plained why he broke pro­to­col.

"You would not know the sac­ri­fices that all of us made, my­self in­clud­ed. When you see a cel­e­bra­tion of ex­cel­lence, it is a re­lease valve. With that re­lease, comes that emo­tion. You don't know what we went through 24 hours per day and to fi­nal­ly see some light on the hori­zon, fills you with emo­tion­al joy," Deyals­ingh said.

He added, "I be­came over­come with joy hav­ing been the leader of this team. I hugged Mr Shade and I have no re­grets about break­ing pro­to­col." Asked whether he was send­ing mixed mes­sages, Deyals­ingh said, "I want to fo­cus on the pos­i­tives. For that two or three sec­onds, Mr Shade de­serves every ac­co­lade that he gets."

He said he ex­pect­ed crit­i­cism to come, adding, "You have to recog­nise the ex­cel­lence of the or­di­nary health care work­er."

Deyals­ingh said half of the coun­try had de­cid­ed not to get vac­ci­nat­ed.

"So be it," he said.

First dose vac­cines, he said are con­tin­u­ing at 200 to 300 per day with over 500 boost­ers be­ing ad­min­is­tered dai­ly.  

COVID-19Ministry of Health


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