Tag Archives: caribbean

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People Want Trusted News, Reuters Institute Says

LONDON, June 23 (Reuters) – The coronavirus pandemic stoked hunger for trusted news in a time of global crisis and a clear majority of people want media organisations to be impartial and objective, The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism said on Wednesday.

Trust in news grew during the pandemic, especially in Western Europe, helping brands with a reputation for reliable reporting, though mistrust was particularly apparent in the polarised media of the United States.

A clear majority of people across countries believed news outlets should reflect a range of views and try to be neutral, the institute said in its annual Digital News Report (https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news-report/2021).

“We’ve been through a very dark time and much of the public recognise that news organisations have often been the ones shining light in that darkness,” said Rasmus Nielsen, director of the Reuters Institute.

“There has been a greater appreciation of trustworthy news overall,” he told Reuters. “It’s very clear in our research, in country after country, in age group after age group, that large majorities want journalism to try to be neutral.”

The report is based on surveys covering 46 markets and more than half the world’s population.

The accelerating technological revolution means 73% of people now access news via a smartphone, up from 69% in 2020, while many use social media networks or messaging apps to consume or discuss news. TikTok now reaches 24% of under 35s, with higher penetration rates in Asia and Latin America.

Facebook is seen as the main artery for spreading false information, though messaging apps such as WhatsApp also play a role.

But the tech giants also served as an avenue for dissent, The Reuters Institute said, citing protests in Peru, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar and the United States.

More people distrusted the news than trusted it in the United States, where Donald Trump’s defeat in the 2020 U.S. presidential election reduced demand for news.

Broadly, those who felt the media has been unfair were those with a right-leaning political outlook. Young people aged 18-24, Black and Hispanic Americans, East Germans and certain British socio-economic classes felt they were covered unfairly.

But the overall message was that most people want fair and balanced news, and despite deepening problems for the business model of print news, many will pay for it.

“While impartial or objective journalism is increasingly questioned by some, overall people strongly support the ideal of impartial news,” Craig T. Robertson, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute, wrote in the report.

“People want the right to decide for themselves.”

The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism is a research centre at the University of Oxford that tracks media trends. The Thomson Reuters Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Thomson Reuters, funds the Reuters Institute.

Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Catherine Evans

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Cuban Scientists Celebrate after Covid Vaccine Shows 92% Efficacy

Cuban scientists celebrating the results of a newly-developed Covid vaccine has emerged on social media – with the communist country boasting one of the highest efficacy rates in the world.

The three-shot Abdala vaccine against the coronavirus proved 92.28 per cent effective in last-stage clinical trials.

The announcement came just days after the government said another homegrown vaccine, Soberana 2, had proved 62 per cent effective with just two of its three doses.

“Hit by the pandemic, our scientists at the Finlay Institute and Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology have risen above all the obstacles and given us two very effective vaccines,” President Miguel Diaz-Canel tweeted.

The announcement came from state-run biopharmaceutical corporation BioCubaFarma, which oversees Finlay, the maker of Soberana 2, and the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, the producer of Abdala.

Cuba, whose biotech sector has exported vaccines for decades, has five coronavirus vaccine candidates.

The Caribbean’s largest island is facing its worst COVID-19 outbreak since the start of the pandemic following the arrival of more contagious variants, setting new records for daily coronavirus cases.

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Cuba: Tourists Can Now Buy $1,000 Cash Cards

14ymedio, Havana, 17 June 2021 — The Cuban banking system has devised a new option to keep the foreign currency of tourists starting with Prepaid Cards at the Cadeca currency exchange offices in Varadero and Cayo Coco.

The cards, of 200, 500 and 1,000 dollars, are only for non-resident travelers, who can buy them by presenting their passport and depositing the amount in cash plus a commission of five dollars, only until the 20th. After that they may do so in any other currency among those accepted in the country.

Prepaid cards can only be spent within Cuba and will be valid for two years. Travelers will thus be able to make purchases in hard currency stores without cash, although they can also withdraw Cuban pesos at ATMs. What they do not allow are transfers from abroad, or deposits or movements of funds between similar cards or others that operate in dollars. And unspent balance is non-refundable in foreign currency.

Last Friday, the first vice president of the Central Bank of Cuba (BCC), Francisco Mayobre Lence, explained on television that travelers who arrive on the island after June 21 will not be able, like nationals, to exchange dollars in cash, and so must arrive with a different currency to cover their expenses or use an international card accepted in the Cuba (the embargo does not allow the use of cards issued in the United States).

The new product could solve some of these problems, but it is to be expected that other problems will occur. The measure has not been well received by Cubans residing in the country, who speculate, in social networks and the official press, about the difficulties that this may have for tourists.

“So, does the tourist who comes with dollars after June 20 have to eat them? Can’t he buy these cards? Will the tourist be forced to come to Cuba with a currency other than the USD?” asks a Cubadebate reader to which another responds: “Cuban inventions. Apparently they forgot that there is competition in the Caribbean.”

Some users fail to imagine tourists lining at a Cadeca and believe it is very possible that a black market for dollars will continue to circulate. Meanwhile, others ask insistently if, since the use of the cards is not limited to the personwho acquired them, anyone will be able to use them, a doubt that reveals the aspiration of many to get one of these products by any means.

Last Thursday the government announced by surprise that it would stop accepting cash in US dollars. Yesterday, the General Customs of the Republic issued a statement clarifying that this also affects the payment of customs duties and services for items imported at the border, which can only be paid in currencies other than the United States or by card.

The agency has asked Cubans to take steps to avoid acting out and comply with regulations without giving up import rights.

Cubans and economists debate the reasons for this decision by the authorities, arguing that they have huge amounts of dollars in cash stuck in banks because they are not able to operate internationally with them. The foreign currency stores, which increasingly provide more goods, even basic goods, to Cubans and, at the same time, are more scarce every day, lack products due to the impossibility of buying with all the cash they collect, due to the US sanctions, which prevent them from moving the money, argues the Government.

Critics doubt this argument and offer other hypotheses, together or in combination, ranging from an attempt to pressure the Biden government to relax sanctions through pressure from families who send remittances, to money laundering through a desperate attempt to get hold of as much US currency they can collect, in record time.

Another theory suggests that it is a matter of curbing the rise in the price of the dollar in the informal market. Exchange houses sell dollars at a rate of 1 x 24 Cuban pesos, while in illegal networks the rate has reached 70.

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U.S. to Investigate Former Indigenous American Boarding Schools for Remains

(Reuters) – The U.S. government will investigate the dark history of Indian boarding schools, and work to find the remains of children who died in them, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said on Tuesday.

Haaland, a former congresswoman from New Mexico and the first Native American to serve as a Cabinet secretary, last year introduced legislation calling for a Truth and Healing Commission into conditions at former Indian boarding schools.

Haaland did not provide details on exactly how the Interior Department would carry out the investigation but she said that given that it oversaw the schools, it was uniquely positioned to do so.

“We must shed light on the traumas of the past,” Haaland said in remarks delivered via video to the National Congress of American Indians. “We must uncover the truth about the loss of human life, and the lasting consequences of these schools.”

The department would work on discovering who attended the schools, where the schools were located and to find the remains of children who died there.

Conditions at former Indian boarding schools gained global attention last month when tribal leaders in Canada announced the discovery of the unmarked graves of 215 children at the site of the former Kamloops residential school for indigenous children, as such institutions are known in Canada.

Unlike the United States, Canada carried out a full investigation into its schools via a Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

The U.S. government has yet to provide any true accounting of the legacy of such schools, including never acknowledging how many children attended them, how many children died or went missing from them or even how many schools existed.

For over 150 years, Native American children in the United States were forcibly removed from their tribes and sent to such schools beginning in 1819. Many children were abused at the schools, and tens of thousands were never heard from again, activists and researchers say.

The Interior Department oversaw the Indian boarding schools and carried out the policies of removing children from tribes in an attempt to forcibly assimilate Native Americans.

Reporting by Brad Brooks; editing by Grant McCool

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Brazil: COVID Runs Rampant Among Copa Athletes

Sao Paulo, Brazil (CNN) At least 140 positive Covid-19 cases have been detected among players, members of delegations and service providers since the beginning of the Copa América tournament in Brazil on June 13, according to the country’s health ministry.

Brazil was chosen to host the football tournament earlier this month despite concerns about the country’s still uncontrolled spread of Covid-19, after the Copa América was moved from its original host countries of Argentina and Colombia. Brazil ranks second in the world for number of Covid-19 fatalities after the United States, and crossed the grim threshold of 500,000 deaths over the weekend.

Half of the national teams participating in the Copa América have been affected by Covid-19 so far. Venezuela, the hardest-hit team, registered eight players infected in its last report. Colombia, Bolivia and Peru also have personnel with coronavirus. The South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) does not release the number of cases per national team.

As the tournament was beginning, Argentine superstar Lionel Messi expressed concerns about contracting the virus while with his national team.

“It worries us because it is a risk for everyone catching Covid,” he told reporters. “We try to be careful but it’s not easy. These things happen.”

“We’ll try to do all we can so no one gets it, but sometimes it doesn’t depend solely on ourselves.”

Of the positive cases confirmed so far at the Copa América, 42 were among players and members registered in national teams, 97 cases were detected among service providers hired for the event and one case was a CONMEBOL staff member.

That’s a significant rise since the last report on Covid-19 at the tournament. Last week, the health ministry reported 37 positive cases among players and delegation members and 45 among service providers of the tournament.

Infections have been registered in all four host cities: Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia, Cuiaba and Goiania.

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As Venezuela’s Economy Regresses, Crypto Fills Gaps

REUTERS
Pablo Toro, Venezuelan delivery worker uses the Valiu app from his cell phone in Bogota, Colombia June 15, 2021. Picture taken June 15, 2021. REUTERS/Luisa Gonzalez
The new Venezuelan cryptocurrency "Petro" logo is seen at a facility of the Youth and Sports Ministry in Caracas, Venezuela February 23, 2018. REUTERS/Marco Bello/Files

Pablo Toro, Venezuelan delivery worker uses the Valiu app from his cell phone in Bogota, Colombia June 15, 2021. Picture taken June 15, 2021. REUTERS/Luisa Gonzalez

The new Venezuelan cryptocurrency “Petro” logo is seen at a facility of the Youth and Sports Ministry in Caracas, Venezuela February 23, 2018. REUTERS/Marco Bello/Files

CARACAS, June 22 (Reuters) – Venezuelan food delivery driver Pablo Toro has no stake in cryptocurrency or blockchain, but indirectly uses digital tokens every time he sends money to his family.

Toro, who emigrated to Colombia in 2019, uses an app called Valiu to receive Colombian pesos from working on Bogota’sstreets and deposit the corresponding bolivars into a Venezuelan bank account.

In Venezuela’s economy, mired by hyperinflation and hemmed in by sanctions, the operation is not so straightforward.

Valiu uses pesos to buy cryptocurrency that it then sells on LocalBitcoins, a global peer-to-peer site for trading tokens in local currencies.

For Toro, the platform is more reliable than informal money changers, the main channel for Venezuelan migrants to send money home. And he need not buy traditional money orders in person.

“When the power is out in Venezuela, when internet service is down, it has a huge impact on how long it takes to send a remittance to one’s family,” said Toro, who quit working as a university security guard because his monthly salary could not even pay for a day’s groceries.

“(Now) I don’t have to worry about whether the cell signal dropped in Venezuela, or if cell service drops here.”

As hyperinflation and U.S. sanctions disrupt Venezuela’s economy, cryptocurrency is emerging as a way to provide services handled elsewhere by the traditional banking system.

It has become a tool to send remittances, protect wages from inflation and help businesses manage cash flow in a quickly depreciating currency, according to interviews with crypto users and experts.

Cryptocurrency in Latin America got renewed attention in June after El Salvador adopted bitcoin as legal tender. It has grown in popularity in Argentina as inflation resurged.

Chainalysis, a startup that researches blockchain transactions, in a 2020 report ranked Venezuela third on its Global Crypto Adoption Index, largely due to the high volume of bolivar transactions.

Mining cryptocurrency – using high-powered computers to solve complex math problems – is an attractive way to make extra income thanks to Venezuela’s ultra-low power prices, but the average citizen cannot afford the equipment.

In Venezuela, crypto is mainly used to hedge against inflation that causes bank deposits to sharply depreciate in weeks or even days.

“Valiu buys and sells bitcoin instead of directly exchanging pesos to bolivars because of the lack of availability of that currency in regulated marketplaces,” said Alejandro Machado, Valiu’s head of pilot programs.

Bolivar transactions on LocalBitcoins are the largest by value among Latin American currencies, according to LocalBitcoins data analyzed by blockchain advisor UsefulTulips.

LocalBitcoins did not respond to a request for comment.

Cryptocurrency traders and experts say volumes on the site have slipped amid the rising popularity of Binance, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, which offers trading of a variety of tokens.

These include so-called “stablecoins” whose values remain steady against specific assets such as the U.S. dollar, avoiding the volatility of many cryptocurrencies.

Bolivar operations on Binance’s peer-to-peer platform have risen by 75% since May, making Venezuela the only Latin Americancountry whose trading volumes have risen since bitcoin prices tumbled at the start of May, a Binance spokesperson said.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in 2017 announced the creation of the state-backed petro cryptocurrency, but it has little practical application. The government used it in 2019 to make small payments to retirees, and often uses it as a unit of value to price services or fines that are ultimately paid in bolivars.

The United States in 2019 imposed broad Venezuela sanctions that block U.S. citizens from dealing with Maduro’s government. While banks can still deal with private businesses or individuals, many avoid doing so due to perceived regulatory risk.

The country’s information ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

Fast food chains Pizza Hut and Church’s Chicken as well as some supermarkets are accepting tokens such as bitcoin and dash as payment, fueling excitement and filling malls and businesses with logos for well-known cryptocurrencies.

But a major part of Venezuela’s crypto operations involves businesses swapping out of bolivars to beat inflation, said economist and finance expert Aaron Olmos.

“Crypto is being used as a palliative for the economic situation, but you see it mostly among businesses,” said Olmos.

“Nobody is going to tell you ‘every night when we do the books, we convert bolivars into bitcoin,’ but yes, this is happening.”

Reporting by Brian Ellsworth; Editing by Richard Chang

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Europe Worries As Delta Variant Spreads Fast In The U.K. & Lisbon, Mexico Deaths, World Stats

Armando Franca/AP

A worrying spike of coronavirus infections in Europe is being driven by the delta variant, according to global health leaders, even as immunization rates in some countries are on the way up.

Increased cases reported in the U.K. and Portugal have forced officials to reimplement lockdown restrictions or hold off on lifting pandemic mandates. Officials in France, Germany and Spain said they are closely monitoring clusters of infection tied to the delta variant.

The strain, also known as B.1.617.2, was first detected in India. It is now “well on its way to becoming the dominant variant globally because of its increased transmissibility,” Soumya Swaminathan, the World Health Organization’s chief scientist, said Friday.

Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines have been shown to be effective against this strain.

A recent study from Public Health England showed two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were 88% effective against symptomatic disease from the delta variant compared with 93% effectiveness against the alpha variant, the variant first detected in the United Kingdom. The vaccine only provided 33% protection after just one dose.

Still, in the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions shared similar concerns of the spread of the delta strain. The CDC declared last week that it was a “variant of concern,” meaning it poses a significant threat to unvaccinated people

UK- A delay in lifting lockdown restrictions

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced last week a delay in plans to lift the final elements of the nation’s lockdown restrictions, citing “a faster than predicted” spread of the strain.

Originally set to end Monday, Johnson said restrictions on businesses and large events will remain in place until July 19.

In the U.K., data shows 99% of sequenced and genotyped confirmed coronavirus cases across the country are the delta variant, according to Public Health England.

The government’s weekly data as of June 18 showed numbers of the delta variant in the U.K. have risen by 33,630 from the previous week to a total of 75,953.

A man wears a mask reading “End the lockdown” outside the Palace of Westminster last week in London to protest against the delay of the planned relaxation of lockdown measures.  Alberto Pezzali/AP

This comes despite the nation’s high immunization rate, with 59.5% of the adult population fully vaccinated from the coronavirus. A reported 81.6% of the adult population have received one dose, according to government data.

Dr. Jenny Harries, chief executive of U.K. Health Security Agency, said in a statement, “The increase is primarily in younger age groups, a large proportion of which were unvaccinated but are now being invited to receive the vaccine.”

On Friday, the government announced every adult over the age of 18 is eligible to receive a coronavirus vaccine.

Authorities in Portugal banned all weekend travel in and out of Lisbon, the capital, to cut down on any further spread of the virus to other parts of the country.

Portugal’s National Health Institute reported this weekend the delta variant is shown to be in at least 60% of new cases in Lisbon. The country reported more than 1,000 new COVID-19 cases for the fourth day in a row on Saturday, according to Reuters.

Spain, Germany and France watch with concern

Cases tied to the delta strain are reported as being low in France, Spain and Germany, but each nation’s health minister warn that the delta variant is perceived as a real threat.

As of June 14, Spain reported the delta variant accounted for less than 1% of cases.

Spain’s Catalonia region, in the northeast, reported 20% of new cases were linked to the delta strain, the region’s health official, Josep Maria Argimon, announced at a press conference Thursday.

Argimon warned that delta could be the predominant variant throughout the country in two to four weeks.

That hasn’t stopped the nation from moving forward with lifting some COVID-19 restrictions. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced Friday that masks would no longer have to be worn outdoors in the country, starting June 26.

German Health Minister Jens Spahn said it’s not if the delta variant becomes dominant, but “when and under what conditions.”

France reported that 2% to 4% of virus samples being analyzed in the country showed the delta variant, according to French Health Minister Olivier Véran.

“We are in the process of crushing the virus and crushing the pandemic, and we must in no way let the Delta variant get the upper hand,” Véran said last week, according to The Financial Times.

“You might say this is still low but it is similar to the situation in the UK a few weeks ago,” he said.

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Mexico’s coronavirus death toll rises to 231,505

People wearing face masks cross a street as Mexico City's authorities announce a full reopening of the city come Monday, the first time since the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, Mexico June 4, 2021. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

People wearing face masks cross a street as Mexico City’s authorities announce a full reopening of the city come Monday, the first time since the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, Mexico June 4, 2021. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

MEXICO CITY, June 22 (Reuters) – Mexico’s health ministry on Tuesday reported 4,233 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country and 261 more fatalities, bringing the total figures to 2,482,784 infections and 231,505 deaths.

The government has said the real number of cases is likely significantly higher, and separate data published in March suggested the actual death toll is at least 60% above the confirmed figure.

Reporting by Diego Ore Editing by Chris Reese
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WORLD STATS

Coronavirus Cases:

179,937,463

Deaths:

3,898,304

Recovered:

164,706,245
Highlighted in green
= all cases have recovered from the infection
Highlighted in grey
= all cases have had an outcome (there are no active cases)

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Latest News

June 23 (GMT)

Updates

  • 4,233 new cases and 261 new deaths in Mexico [source]

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Mexico Border: Asylum Seekers Wait for End of Trump Health Rule

Reuters

 

A Mexican man, who is fleeing from violence in his hometown and is currently camping near the Cordova-Americas international border crossing bridge while waiting to apply for asylum to the U.S., packs his belongings to move to a shelter as temperatures dropped below freezing in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, December 18, 2019. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez
An asylum-seeking migrant, who was apprehended and returned to Mexico under Title 42 after crossing the border from Mexico into the U.S., rests in a public square where hundreds of migrants live in tents, in Reynosa, Mexico June 9, 2021. Picture taken June 9, 2021. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril

REYNOSA, Mexico, June 22 (Reuters) – When Salvadoran asylum seeker Liset Ortiz was kidnapped in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez on her way to the United States, a kidnapper found the police report she was carrying as proof of the death threats she says she received in El Salvador for being a lesbian.

So he dragged her away from her 8-year-old son – who was from a previous marriage before she came out as lesbian – and raped her, she said. “He told me that he’d show me he was better than a woman,” Ortiz recounted.

Ortiz, 32, and her son were freed from the warehouse where they were held with several other kidnapped women only after her family in the United States wired $4,000 to the kidnappers, her sister in Texas confirmed by phone.

Once released, they fled across the border to the United States hoping to seek asylum from the discrimination she had faced in El Salvador. Instead, that same night, U.S. immigration agents sent them back to Mexico under a Trump-era health code that has closed the border to many asylum seekers, she said.

Reuters could not independently verify Ortiz’s account.

U.S. President Joe Biden, during his successful presidential campaign, denounced a Trump-era program that returned tens of thousands of Central American asylum seekers to violent Mexican border cities to wait as their cases wound through U.S. courts. On his first day in office, Biden halted the program.

Yet, he kept in place a Trump-era health order, known as Title 42, that allows U.S. officials to rapidly expel migrants at U.S. borders during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, five months into Biden’s presidency, the scenes at the Mexican border are little changed.

Ortiz and her son are now one of hundreds of Central American families camped at the foot of the international bridge in Reynosa, one of Mexico’s most dangerous cities. The camp is reminiscent of a symbol of Trump’s restrictive immigration policies: the now-closed squalid tent city in another cartel-run border town, Matamoros, 55 miles to the east.

Many of the families living in tents in Reynosa – just across from McAllen, Texas – arrived after they were expelled by U.S. officials to Mexico without a chance to present their asylum claims.

Since Biden took office, U.S. border authorities have recorded more than 400,000 expulsions under Title 42, according to data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency. The vast majority of those expelled are Mexicans and Central Americans. Repeat crossings are common.

A White House spokesperson said Title 42 was a public health directive, not an immigration enforcement tool, and was necessary on health grounds. The Biden administration says it is working to strengthen the asylum system along the border.

But advocate groups, U.N. officials and even some fellow Democrats say the continuation of Title 42 is subjecting migrants to the same dangers – kidnapping, extortion, and sexual violence – as the policies of the Trump administration.

Nearly 3,300 migrants and asylum seekers stranded in Mexico since Biden took office have been kidnapped, raped, trafficked or assaulted, according to a report by the New York-based group Human Rights First released Tuesday.

“We believe that it is time to end Title 42,” Kelly Clements, the deputy high commissioner for the United Nations refugee agency, told Reuters. “We think now it is having the effect of sending more people, and children in this case, into harm’s way.”

MIGRANT PATROL

In Reynosa, criminal groups for years have fought for control of the region’s lucrative drug trafficking and human smuggling routes. On Saturday, armed gunmen killed 18 apparently randomly selected people in several of its neighborhoods.

In the plaza, migrants run a nightly patrol that has beaten back some gang members who have tried to snatch residents of the encampment, migrants say.

A Reuters witness saw no police stationed near the plaza. The state-level office of public security, state government and federal immigration authorities did not respond to questions about what authorities were doing to protect migrants.

Criminal groups exert considerable control along the border in northeastern Mexico and require migrants to pay to cross their territory.

“I’m afraid to be here,” said Honduran mother Dolores Zúñiga, 40, who says she was kidnapped along with her 7- and 11-year-old sons when she arrived in Reynosa.

After crossing the border and then being expelled back to Mexico, her smuggler warned Zúñiga that unless she coughs up another $1,500 to a criminal group for permission to be in Reynosa, she risks being kidnapped again.

“They have photos of me,” she said, hiding inside her sweltering tent, where she showed Reuters text messages from her smuggler warning her against even venturing to the edge of the plaza.

Reporting by Laura Gottesdiener and Daniel Becerril; Writing by Laura Gottesdiener; Editing by Diane Craft

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Close To 200 Persons Ticketed For Breaching The Emergency Powers (Covid-19) Regulations

Basseterre, St. Kitts, June 22, 2021 (RSCNPF):  The Police have issued 191 tickets between the period May 21 to June 20 for the offences of Failing to Wear Masks in Public and for Hosting Social Events Without Permission. The offences are both breaches of the Emergency Powers (COVID-19) Regulations under which St. Kitts and Nevis has been operating. 

This information was disclosed by Superintendent Cromwell Henry at the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC) press briefing which was held on Monday, June 21, 2021. During his presentation, he gave an update on the enforcement efforts of The Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force (RSCNPF) in that area to date. 

“One hundred and nineteen of such tickets were issued on St. Kitts and 72 on Nevis. Further, 31 persons have been arrested for breaching the curfew and, so far, 8 have been charged. We continue to urge our people to take all the COVID–19 control measures seriously and strictly adhere to them as such adherence will facilitate the slowing of the spread of the virus and the eventual easing of all restrictions,” Superintendent Henry told the public. 

 Superintendent Henry is one of the representatives of the RSCNPF on the National COVID-19 Task Force. 

In section 3(1) of the Statutory Rules and Orders No. 24 of 2021 Emergency Powers (COVID-19) Regulations, 2021, it states that “a period of night curfew is imposed every day from 6 p.m. of one day until 5 a.m. of the following day,” while Section 5 prohibits mass gatherings. 

 Section 20 speaks to penalties and states that, “a person who contravenes or fails to comply with these Regulations shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars or to a term of imprisonment not exceeding 6 months or to both and to forfeiture of any goods or money in respect of which the offence has been committed.”

 

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Possible Storm Forming Near Eastern Caribbean

The US National Hurricane Centre is keeping close watch over a tropical wave located about 750 miles east-southeast of the Windward Islands.

It says the area of disturbance is producing disorganised showers and a few thunderstorms.

The NHC in its 2 pm update notes although shower activity has diminished somewhat this afternoon, recent satellite-derived surface wind data indicate that the wave has become better defined since yesterday.

It says some additional development of this disturbance will be possible during the next couple of days before upper-level winds become less conducive for further organisation by Thursday. The system is expected to move westward to west-northwestward at 15 to 20 miles per hour.

The disturbance has a 30 per cent chance of cyclone formation in the next 48 hours.

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