KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent – Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, 66, said on Wednesday that he was feeling good in relations to his heath at the beginning of the New Year.

Gonsalves, who, like Opposition Leader Arnhim Eustace, has a large, pronounced belly, said he began paying closer attention to his health last July.

“I want to say at the beginning of the New Year I feel very good. My numbers in respect of my health are pretty good since July last year when I went on a focused programme of taking better care of myself than I had done hitherto,” he told reporters.

“I do all the checks, all the blood tests at intervals. I did in July as I began, in August, in October and I just did again,” he said.

“I am pretty good. I’m pretty good. I am feeling good at the start of the New Year and that very goodness it has to be shown in other ways. The health and the belief systems are not just something which are manifested in the physical sense but there has to be [outward] signs of inward grace,” said Gonsalves, who has been prime minister since 2001.