Four-time extempo champ Joseph Vautor La Placeliere, popularly known as the Mighty Lingo, has contracted the COVID-19 virus and remains hospitalised at the Arima General Hospital and his wife is calling on the nation to pray for him.
Confirming that her visually impaired husband had tested positive for the virus about a week ago, Chanelle La Placeliere said the incident has her worried and gripped in fear.
Lingo captured the Extempo Monarch titles in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2015.
Speaking to Guardian Media in a telephone interview yesterday, Chanelle, who is partially blind, could not confirm where her husband picked up the virus.
“They would like to believe it is from work because it have others just like him who also contracted COVID-19 from the same shift that he is working on,” Chanelle said.
She said she knows of three confirmed cases at the association.
“This is what I can vouch for.”
While Lingo is not in the Intensive Care Unit, Chanelle could not say which ward he has been admitted to.
“He is not in ICU. Thank God and he is not on a ventilator. Knowing the circumstances that goes with COVID and knowing that Joseph is in there I am worried and I am praying,” she said.
Doctors at the hospital have been providing Chanelle with updates on her husband’s health which she refused to divulge.
“So far the health facility is treating him well. We are depending on the hospital to do what they have to do.”
Asked if they received their jabs, she replied “well…that is personal.”
Appealing to the nation to keep Lingo in their prayers, Chanelle said.
“We want as much prayers as possible. He is in good spirits. Due to what we have been hearing it is scary. It is heartbreaking and heart-wrenching…It is just not a nice feeling. I can’t explain it. It is not a nice feeling to be in this position, you know, actually witnessing what it is like.”
Next Tuesday will mark the second anniversary of the La Placeliere’s marriage.
Since Lingo’s hospitalisation, Chanelle admitted she has broken down several times.
“Yes, I love my husband very much. Yes, I will break down.”
Gripped in fear, she said the last few days have been very traumatic and worrying.
“It is a tough time…. It is a sensitive time. We really want to pray and be strong.”
Executive officer of the T&T Blind Welfare Association Kenneth Suratt confirmed in the last three weeks four employees of the association were tested positive for the virus one of whom is Lingo.
Suratt said it is difficult to tell where the workers may have contracted the virus.
“Blind persons are all over the place. They could have gotten it here or elsewhere. They live life like everybody else.”
He said one vaccinated employee was affected by COVID.
“However, she got over it and is okay.”
Suratt said Lingo and another employee have been hospitalised at the Arima General Hospital while the fourth person has since recovered.
A fifth worker who is very ill is reluctant to take the test.
“Lingo deliberately said he not taking no vaccine. At the end of the day, it is their right to take or not to take it,” Suratt said.
In July, Suratt said the association started the process to get persons vaccinated.
“There are persons here who have made it clear that they do not want vaccines and no one can send them for it.”
Suratt said the workers were quick to quote the advice of Industrial Court president Deborah Thomas-Felix who said no employers could change the terms and conditions of workers by compelling them to get vaccinated.
Suratt said Lingo, who does basketry, has not reported for duty for about three weeks.
“I want them to speak the truth. One…say how long you take before you went to the doctor. When last were you on the compound?”
The association’s 18 staff members work on a rotational basis.
For months, the association has been urging workers/staff to get vaccinated.
“They don’t even want to get tested. Roughly, close to 90 per cent of all employees of the association are not vaccinated. Do you know they are upstairs in the workshop and they don’t wear their masks? I gave each worker of the association $2,100 to buy PPE, masks, sanitisers and a little bit of clothes if they want. So, if they buy it and they don’t wear it, what do you want me to do?”
Assuring the employees that they would not suffer a loss of earnings if they tested positive for the virus and had to remain isolated for the requisite two weeks, Suratt lamented, “They do not even want to go for their PCR test.”
He said, “There is no employee from the Blind Welfare Association who went on quarantine and had their pay cut.”
Asked why there is such a level of vaccine hesitancy among his workforce, he said the access to information most likely is the cause.
He said with information coming at them from all different sources and mediums, it was up to the individual to decide what was best for them.
To compound matters, he said a large percentage of blind individuals have comorbidities.
“The reason for that is when you are blind the level of your mobility slows down and we take in the same amount of carbohydrates so it will turn into fat.”
Suratt said he was worried about the situation.
“I wish Lingo a speedy recovery. We grew up together like brothers. I spent more time with Lingo at the School for the Blind than with my own family. We shared the same food together. So, I am really concerned by the news.”
National Carnival Commission chairman Winston “Gypsy” Peters who is Lingo’s cousin, said he was shocked by the news.
Having battled with Lingo on stage for the prestigious Extempo title, Gypsy said when he heard that a few of the workers of the association were infected he begged God to let it not be Lingo.
“Then I got the news….my worst fears were realised when they told me one of the persons that had fallen sick. I am hoping that he pulls through this one. I can’t go and look for him. The most we can do is stay from a distance and pray that God gives him a speedy recovery,” he said.