Jesse Ramdeo

jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt

A re­cent in­crease in the num­ber of po­lice of­fi­cers suc­cumb­ing to COVID-19 has prompt­ed the Pres­i­dent of the Po­lice Ser­vice So­cial and Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion to re­new calls for the Gov­ern­ment to pro­vide med­ical in­sur­ance for po­lice of­fi­cers.

In­spec­tor Gideon Dixon said the loss of 30 of­fi­cers to date has rat­tled the ser­vice. Ac­cord­ing to him, the Gov­ern­ment should take a dif­fer­ent ap­proach to bol­ster of­fi­cers con­fi­dence in the COVID-19 vac­cines.

Ac­cord­ing to him, swift ac­tion is need­ed to mit­i­gate the loss of life.

“The State must al­so stand li­a­bil­i­ty if per­sons have ad­verse ef­fect as it re­lates to COVID vac­ci­na­tion. We want to see that take place in a mean­ing­ful way. Med­ical in­sur­ance could as­sist in terms of per­sons re­mov­ing that bar­ri­er, that block­ade, that hes­i­ta­tion from want­i­ng to be vac­ci­nat­ed.”

Dixon said the as­so­ci­a­tion will be tak­ing its own ac­tion to try and pre­vent more of­fi­cers from con­tract­ing and dy­ing from COVID-19.

“ We are do­ing a sur­vey right now which will be com­ing to an end at 6 pm on the 7th (to­day). When we ex­trap­o­late the da­ta it will as­sist us in a strate­gic ap­proach go­ing for­ward, so any time from the 8th go­ing for­ward we are go­ing to put to­geth­er a task force and work along­side the ad­min­is­tra­tion to see if we could ad­dress the wel­fare con­cerns of po­lice of­fi­cers.”

The Po­lice Ser­vice So­cial and Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion Pres­i­dent al­so con­tend­ed that a bet­ter dis­tri­b­u­tion of per­son­al pro­tec­tive equip­ment for of­fi­cers is need­ed.

“Just like the doc­tors and nurs­es have their PPE 24 hours around the clock we need to have those, and while the sup­ply chain may have been im­pact­ed there is suf­fi­cient to give.”