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Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves. (File photo by Lance Neverson/Facebook)
Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves. (File photo by Lance Neverson/Facebook)
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When students and teachers return to school on Monday, for the first time this year, teachers who have not taken a government-approved COVID-19 vaccine or who have not been tested for the virus would be asked to leave the compound.

Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves made the announcement on VC3, on Wednesday, as he continued to defend his government’s vaccination or test policy for public sector workers.

Under the policy, all employees of the central government or statutory entities are required to submit their COVID-19 vaccination report or be tested up to once every two weeks for the virus.

“Tomorrow, the 8th and Friday the 9th, we are asking the teachers across the whole of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the areas where you are from, go to your clinic, take the test.

“If everybody could take it, fine. You take the test or you take the vaccine. Preferably, you take the vaccine. If all of you go and you take the vaccine, that is fine,” Gonsalves said, adding that 331 teachers or 17% of the nation’s educators have taken the vaccine.

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“… when you go in to the principal on the 12th [of April] you say, ‘Well, listen, I am vaccinated or I am tested.’ No big thing. If you are not, you will be asked, ‘Listen, you can’t stay on the compound until you go and get vaccinated or tested.’

“On the 12th, I am informed that the Ministry of Health would have health personnel available to go also to test,” Gonsalves said.

He said that getting vaccinated or testing is “a matter of solidarity.

On Saturday, president of the Public Service Union, Elroy Boucher said that public sector workers have adhered to the COVID-19 protocols so well that there have not been any outbreaks at any government department or agency since the shift system ended on March 17.

Gonsalves, however, said that there are a number of government offices where COVID-19 has resulted in days-long closures.

He did not indicate when these closures occurred, but listed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Registry, the Attorney General’s Chambers, Director of Public Prosecution’s Chambers, the Accountant General’s Office, and the Ministry of Social Development.

“There are several places… So we have the history and what is prospective about all the variants and so on and forth and we have the vaccine and we have to return to normalcy and we have Soufriere,” Gonsalves said, referring to the nation’s volcano, which has been erupting effusively since late December.  

Meanwhile, in a memo to principals of educational institutions, on Wednesday, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Myccle Burke, noted that the government, through a March 31, 2021 memorandum has communicated “a policy on vaccination and testing of the public sector workers”.

He said that consistent with the policy position of the government, all teachers and ancillary staff are required to submit to the Ministry of Education through their respective principal, a copy of their vaccination card or recent COVID-19 rapid antigen test results, no later than 1:30 p.m. on April 9, 2021.

“The Ministry of Health and the Environment has committed to providing the resources to execute this critical activity in preparation for the scheduled reopening of school on April 12, 2021,” Burke said.

23 replies on “Vaccinate, test or leave — PM tells teachers”

  1. Our Prime Minister seems to have missed the 2-hour roundtable discussion hosted by the Governor in Florida recently with 4 top Globally recognized Medical experts from Oxford, Harvard and other institutions that represented over 14,000 Medical experts that signed a document against ALL THE MISINFORMATION concerning the virus, lockdowns, etc…
    AS EXPECTED, YOUTUBE REMOVED THIS VIDEO, but I hear it is still possible to find.

    From the information in this article Prime Minister Gonsalves and his other globablist “Great Reset” friends are continuing on course to diminish the property assets, freedoms and rights of the non-rich, possibly to include population reduction, so that they can have more as they usher in their form of Socialism for the rich and powerful.
    As these people are now saying:
    “You will own nothing and be happy”….(“because we tell you it is that way and you are too stupid to realize it yourselves.”)…LoL

  2. Cumrid says you probably won’t get paid so leave and strike .The Cumrid is gradually losing it… I lay the blame for the Cumrid’s dictatorial and predictable behavior on the people who blindly chose to give this man 5 in a row..you reap what you sow.

  3. It looks to me like another veiled threat to try and get people vaccinated and tested.. I – Listen to the public sector unions, which say that the policy offends the nation’s Constitution and civil liberties.

  4. What sort of Jackass is Gonzales? This is wrong, wrong , wrong. This kind of behaviour is exhibited by dictators I hope those who do not comply take vigorous legal action against this tyrannical behaviour. The only time one would have Witnessed this type of behaviour is in Nazi Germany I thought Adolf Hitler was long dead I wasn’t aware that he was hanging out as the leader of a caribbean country.

  5. sensible person says:

    So much for freedom of choice under an authoritarian! We can all be relieved that this “crisis” has UNMASKED this man for what many have suspected him of being.

    His “mind bender” accusation of the opposition is now proven to be PROJECTION= a propaganda technique of accusing your opponent of what you yourself are guilty of. Children are not in danger of being harmfully affected of Covid, nor is the teacher the only adult a child encounters during the day. His AUTHORITARIAN MIND-BENDER methods are just a way of he himself gaining “rewards” for forcing vaccinations from the MOST DANGEROUS VACCINE ON EARTH and restrictions on a well-informed people, after he himself after much self-debate decided to get the safest vaccine on earth.

    YOU TAKING THE MOST DANGEROUS VACCINE IS A RISK HE IS WILLING TO TAKE. And if you do not you will have to be forced to constantly get tested until you do vaccinate!

    In most other countries people are not forced to vaccinate but in SVG they seem to have found a way to gradually force everyone, one group at a time. Why didn’t he start with the street vendors?

  6. Columbus lie says:

    Let us all pray for the PM his behavior has been very erotic since taking that jab. You so concern about the Big C when the BIG A running loose. The things these leaders will do for money. If your education revolution worked the people should be smart enough to think on there own about what’s best for them.

  7. Teacher of 32 years says:

    This feels like being bullied, no less. Teachers should take the vaccine or test under guarantee that the students they have to interact closely with will have been vaccinated too, or be tested twice monthly as well, and their parents too by extension. After all, infection is a “2 way street” in this context, especially as being vaccinated gives one NO advantage over not being vaccinated! Still can infect others, still can get infected, no leeway for recompense if this vaccines “injures me” or “God forbids, takes me out!”

  8. The love of money is the root to all evil. No one should be forced to do what they don’t want to do. The PM is not God. It’s so ironic how all of them is singing the same song. Stop killing out the people.

  9. Nonsense, it’s against human rights. Not one should be forced. If all the teachers stick together and don’t go into school let me see who is going to teach. Crap!

  10. He has already sold his soul, he wants all vincentians to do the same. What a disgrace, nuremberg code forbids forced or coerced medical intervention nazis were hung for this after ww 2. My suggestion, back to tilling the soil for your daily bread because this is just the start of the depopulation agenda, God speed people time to cast off these demon shills.

  11. Brooklyn Star ⭐ says:

    Total madness. Lord have mercy on these Caribbean Islands where leaders feel they own you and treat you like puppets on a string.

  12. Wow! This is the highest level of hyporacsy!‍♀️‍♀️‍♀️‍♀️..Lord have mercy on the PM. Ignorance is a diease!!!!!

  13. Jacob Stapleton says:

    There’s a good reason for the eruption of the La Soufriere volcano. Ralph Gonsalves would’ve have faced a tumultuous rask with teachers in St Vincent and the Grenadines. I don’t know if you’ve already taken Bill Gates monies but, you better try to leave whenever you decide to, in good standing with the respect that some folks have for you.

  14. Hashtag Prince says:

    Bullying in its purest form and very disrespectful to the teachers.
    The Union gonna sit back and not represent???
    Mr. PM you should choose your words very carefully.

  15. This is terrible policy. Going this far to “force” a person to do something against their will! DENY THEM SAFETY AND SECURITY UNLESS THEY BEND TO YOUR WILL! LEADERS IN OTHER COUNTRIES DO NOT DO THIS. THEY ARE NOT DICTATORSHIPS and respect people’s right to free will, What about our PM?
    NO SAFETY or shelter UNLESS….!

    https://www.rt.com/news/520696-vincent-volcano-evacuation-vaccinated/

    Our Prime Minister got the vaccine most of the world wants.
    That no one dies from and they now say it protects from Covid FOR LIFE!

    https://www.rt.com/russia/520719-sputnik-czech-poll-vaccine/

    It is free! Our PM gets Sputnik-V and we get INSTEAD a vaccine that has the WORST REPUTATION on the planet!

    Something may be wrong in this man’s head!!!

  16. We need to be given our God given choices without any discrimination – we are entitled to decide on what we want and what we don’t, it’s our constitutional right, our choice., the pharmaceuticals companies have already protect themselves against lawsuits and liabilities.. We are not on your plantation., you don’t own us.

  17. Neville J Garraway says:

    I am a Guyanese, I love the people of St Vincent.Such a beautiful place,But I hate ralph gonsalves and his […] govt.Treating the people of St Vincent like his personal slaves living in his own personal fiefdom.I have no idea why they keep voting for him to remain there.All these dumb […] year after year voting to keep that [man] in office because he keeps throwing crumbs at them and they believe that he loves them, when in truth and in fact he has taken the place and has the mindset of the very people who were gotten rid of as former rulers.The likes of people like Gonsalves should never access the reins of power in places like St Vincent.They are too close to having the same mindset of the former colonial rulers and therefore should never be allowed to make decisions about the lives of people who they treat and appear to believe are less than themselves.

  18. Neville J Garraway says:

    And dont tell me nothing about his black wife.Thomas Jefferson had a whole bunch of kids a slave woman doesn’t mean he cared about her .She died still being a slave.

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