Premier of Nevis Mark Brantley announced this past week that no work permits or renewal of residency will be issued, unless the applicants are vaccinated against COVID-19.
Speaking at his monthly Press conference on Wednesday, Brantley said that as a government, they have continually tried to see what they can do to tighten the safety and security of Nevisians, and have recognized that Nevis has been a very popular destination for persons seeking work, and those that are seeking to live on the island.
“The Premier’s offices handle work permits; it handles residencies. Effective May 2021, anyone seeking work permits or residency or seeking to renew their work permit or residency, will have to provide evidence that they have been vaccinated. We feel as if this is a reasonable measure to take in the circumstances,” he said.
Brantley noted that if non-nationals do not provide proof of vaccination, then documents will not be issued to them.
Read more to this article and others in this week’s Observer Newspaper
Bunnings Warehouse has been named the nation's top online retailer.
The home improvements giant took out the top spot in Power Retail's Australia's Top 100 Online Retailers, praised for how it adapted to Australians wanting to take up some home improvements during lockdown.
Supermarket giant Woolworths was next on the list, followed by discount retailer Kmart.
Power Retail said: "Bunnings Warehouse was a major winner online from COVID-19, with a massive leap in traffic and sales that propelled Bunnings ahead of the supermarket duopoly for the first time ever.
"A laggard to online, Bunnings most definitely arrived and then some in 2020, with click and collect plus its marketplace offering seeing an enormous surge."
Making up the list of top online retailers were Coles, Kogan, Catch, Target, Chemist Warehouse, Officeworks and JB Hi-Fi.
Power Retail helps online retailers and industry suppliers improve performance and profit.
Managing director Grant Arnott said coronavirus forced more Australians online than ever before and retailers had had to adapt.
"Retailers that led the charge, including Bunnings, JB Hi Fi and Officeworks, did well because they learnt to diversify their networks and not just rely on one channel for success," he said.
Perth will "snap back" to significantly reduced restrictions from Saturday morning but Western Australians have been warned more local cases of COVID-19 are possible in the coming week.
Masks will remain mandatory indoors and on public transport in the WA capital and neighbouring Peel region but many other restrictions will be significantly eased as planned.
Speaking on Thursday night after a meeting with the state's disaster council, Premier Mark McGowan said cafes and restaurants would return to "pretty much business as usual", nightclubs could reopen and the local AFL derby on the weekend could host a 75 per cent crowd.
He said indoor and outdoor community sport could return with spectators, funerals could be enlarged to 200 guests and outdoor gatherings could go ahead for up to 500 people without a COVID-19 event plan.
Home gatherings will be limited to 30 people, nightclubs forced to comply with the four-square-metre rule and hospitality venues must comply with either the two-square-metre rule or 75 per cent capacity.
All elective surgeries will resume and patient visit restrictions have been eased slightly. Indoor fitness venues, dance studios and gyms can all reopen too, with mask requirements.
Mr McGowan warned more local community cases could be detected in the coming week as 399 close contacts — who have all so far tested negative — are retested while completing their 14-day quarantine.
He said there would still be "low-level" risk in the community until next Friday but contact tracing and the snap lockdown had allowed the state to "snap back to where we were with very few restrictions".
"I'm sorry we had to go down this path. But the alternative is simply not worth the risk," he said.
"We have seen what community spread of the virus can do, it is absolutely heartbreaking with hospitals overwhelmed and loved ones passing away. And we've seen what long-term lockdowns and long-term severe restrictions can do. We've seen it over east, and we've seen it around the world, mass unemployment and business shutdowns."
Mr McGowan also announced new targeted $2000 grants for the businesses affected worst by the snap lockdown, such as those in hospitality, catering and fitness.
"I know it might not be everything some businesses would want," he said.
"But it is an acknowledgement of the impact and some support to assist."
There were no new local COVID-19 cases recorded on Thursday, but four were recorded in hotel quarantine, all originating from India.
Of 899 casual contacts from the hotel quarantine cluster, 800 had returned a negative result and 50,000 tests had been carried out since Friday.
Perth and the Peel region have been in a "transition period" since the three-day snap lockdown ended this week.
The requirements continue to apply to anyone who has been in the Perth or Peel regions since April 17, even if they have since left.
Mr McGowan reiterated a plea for anyone with symptoms or who had been to an exposure site to get tested, including for a second time if necessary.
The use of physical punishment by parents against children has declined, but remains common, a University of Otago study found. Children’s Commissioner Judge Andrew Becroft said the report’s findings were encouraging and indicative…
Nassau Guardian- A lesson to everyone. A man who put his name on his sister’s COVID-19 test was yesterday fined $4,000.
Chavaz Campbell pleaded guilty to possession of a forged document and uttering a forged document after he tried to travel to Abaco on the altered test result.
Police arrested Campbell at Lynden Pindling International Airport on April 24, after they noticed discrepancies in the document that was said to have been issued by the Medical Pavilion.
The lab confirmed that Campbell had not taken a COVID-19 test there.
With his ruse uncovered, Campbell told police that he had paid someone $5 on popular freelance marketplace Fiverr, to alter the negative test result that his sister had previously used to obtain a travel health visa.
Campbell told Chief Magistrate Joyann Ferguson-Pratt that he had been required to travel to Marsh Harbour, Abaco, at short notice to photograph leaking dome houses. He claimed that he was fully vaccinated against COVID-19 after getting his final dose of the Pfizer vaccine in New York in January.
Campbell said if his travel had occurred next month, he would have been exempted from taking a PCR test, as announced by Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis recently. However, the chief magistrate said that Campbell’s alleged vaccinated status was not an issue before the court. She said he was arrested for forging a negative test and that his action could not be justified.
Shares of cruise lines including Royal Carribean were trading higher on Thursday after the Centers for Disease Control said Americans could relax and party on the high seas again as soon as this July – if they are fully vaccinated.
Cruising from U.S. ports could restart in mid-summer in American waters, the CDC said late Wednesday in a letter to the cruise industry obtained by USA Today.
“We acknowledge that cruising will never be a zero-risk activity and that the goal of the (Conditional Sailing Order)’s phased approach is to resume passenger operations in a way that mitigates the risk of COVID-19 transmission onboard cruise ships and across port communities,” Aimee Treffiletti, head of the Maritime Unit for CDC’s COVID-19 response within its Global Mitigation Task Force for COVID-19, said in the letter.
Among other things, the Conditional Sail Order requires cruise lines to establish agreements at ports where they intend to operate, implement routine testing of the crew and develop vaccination strategies.
The letter comes on the heels of a month of twice-weekly meetings with cruise industry representatives. During those meetings, the industry and the health agency discussed the Conditional Sailing Order.
In a statement about the letter, spokesperson Caitlin Shockey provided USA TODAY with a more specific timeline, saying cruises could begin passenger voyages from the U.S. as soon as mid-July, depending on cruise lines’ pace and compliance with the CDC’s proposed framework.
That was enough to prompt investors to bid up shares of cruise operators, with shares of Royal Caribbean up 2.57% at $89.72 in premarket trading on Thursday, and shares of rival Carnival up 2.3% at $28.44. Norwegian rose 2.91% at $31.11.
Last week, Goldman Sachs upgraded Norwegian Cruise Line to a buy and raised the price target on the stock amid what the firm sees as a strong post-pandemic rebound in cruising demand.
Other models in the range have also fetched impressive amounts. In January, a Holden HSV GTSR W1 Maloo sold for $1.05 million, an auction record for an Australian-made car.
The supercharged V8 ute was built after the end of local manufacturing with bids passing $1 million a fortnight before the Lloyds Auction.
This beat the previous Australian record, a Ford Falcon GTHO Phase III which went for $1.03 million in 2018.
Cuba’s Health Ministry Official Francisco Duran Wednesday warned about the high spread of COVID-19 in the country, which has registered an average of 1,045 cases per day in the last month
During a televised conference, Duran urged the people to comply with the health measures imposed by the government given the COVID-19 upsurge.
In the last 24 hours, Cuba confirmed 988 new infections and ten deceased people, bringing to 104,512 the number of COVID-19 infections and 614 the number of deaths caused by the disease since March 2020.
“The country’s epidemiological scenario has worsened since we identified the circulation of more deadly strains, such as those reported in the United Kingdom (U.K.), South Africa, and California,” Duran explained.
“The mutations are causing patients to have more severe symptoms of the disease in a short period and are increasing the number of deaths,” he added.
According to the Health Ministry, over 700 children under 18 years old remain with the active virus.
In the last 15 days, 42.9 percent of the confirmed cases in Cuba are from 12 municipalities: 10 in Havana and two in the neighboring province of Matanzas.
Several United States lawmakers have sent a letter to the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken urging that Washington re-assess its policies towards Haiti.
CNW- Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Gregory W. Meeks, and Hakeem Jeffries, Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, were among 68 legislators that wrote to Blinken regarding Haiti, where President Jovenel Moise is under tremendous pressure to step down from office.
The letter, which was also signed by every Democrat on the Western Hemisphere subcommittee, calls on the Biden administration to withhold funding for the constitutional referendum proposed by President Moïse and warns of the dangers of pushing forward with flawed elections later this year.
“Listen to the voices of Haitian civil society and grassroots organizations, who have been clear that no elections under the current administration in Haiti will be free, fair, and credible,” the letter noted.
It said “the State Department should instead focus on the underlying democratic legitimacy issues identified by Haiti’s civil society and support a Haiti-led process for change
“Elections held without meeting internationally accepted standards for participation and legitimacy will only further undermine faith in democratic governance, waste scarce resources and perpetuate a cycle of political instability and violence.”
The US legislators said that they were forced to write Blinken to “express our serious and urgent concerns regarding the quickly deteriorating situation in Haiti.”
They said while they appreciated “your personal engagement with Haiti, and the State Department’s recent criticism of some of the unconstitutional actions by the administration of President Jovenel Moïse, we believe it is past time for a more significant review of U.S. policy in Haiti. We look forward to working with you to make this a reality”.
The legislators said that they were encouraging the Biden administration to “support the sovereignty of the U.S.’s oldest neighbour in the hemisphere by reaffirming the U.S. commitment to the principles of democracy and rule of law.
“The Biden Administration inherited a multifaceted crisis (constitutional, human rights, economic, social) that the actions of the previous administration exacerbated. However, we must also recognize that the crisis of today did not start yesterday.
“For decades, the international community has invested hundreds of millions of dollars to help Haiti achieve political stability and a representative democracy. In order to move forward more productively, we must acknowledge that these efforts have failed to achieve their desired results, and that continuing along the same path will only exacerbate the situation.”
They said that nationwide unrest and political turmoil have increased significantly since 2018 and have brought about severe instability and political violence.
The lengthy letter said that parliamentary, local, and presidential elections set for later this year “could increase the risk of violence throughout the country significantly.”
But they said that “despite this alarming situation, the State Department has been insistent, both in public and in private briefings with members, that elections – now scheduled for later this year – are the only path forward.
“While elections will clearly be needed in the near future to restore democratic order, we remain deeply concerned that any electoral process held under the current administration will fail to be free, fair, or credible and that continued U.S. insistence on elections at all costs will only make this outcome more likely. President Barack Obama’s former Ambassador to Haiti, Pamela White, made clear during her testimony to the House Foreign Affairs Committee in March that legitimate elections are not possible in the current context. Witnesses from Haitian civil society agreed strenuously,” they wrote.
They said considering these factors, “we urge the State Department to: make clear that the U.S. will not provide any support, financial or technical, to facilitate the proposed constitutional referendum, including through multilateral institutions”.
Earlier this month, Washington said it was looking forward to working with the new Prime Minister of Haiti, Claude Joseph, who has pledged to continue efforts for the staging of the referendum and the organization of new elections in the country.
The children of Gold Coast mother Kelly Wilkinson, who was allegedly murdered by her estranged husband, will be cared for by their aunt and uncle in a loud, loving family of 10.
Ms Wilkinson's sister Danielle Carroll and her husband Rhys are now caring for eight children under the age of 11 in their four-bedroom home.
The couple already had five children of their own before they decided to take in Ms Wilkinson's three children following her death.
"We currently have a convoy everywhere we go. Half the kids in one car, half the kids in the other and a support vehicle with the school bags," she said laughing.
"We've been in open discussions with the kids as things are progressing and just letting them know that there's a sense of belonging at our house.
"They are eternally loved."
Ms Wilkinson was found burned in the backyard of her Arundel home on Tuesday last week.
Her ex-husband Brian Johnston has been charged with her murder and remains in an induced coma in hospital.
Her family is now fighting to change a broken system, that police have admitted is failing to protect vulnerable women and children.
"I feel like she has done her part and got the world's attention and it's now up to all of us to step up and make sure changes are made to safeguard our children and our future generations," Ms Carroll said.
Ms Wilkinson's interactions with police and their subsequent actions will be subject to an internal police review by Assistant Commissioner Brian Codd, as well as a coronial investigation.
