The following is a press release issued by the government of Antigua and Barbuda.
St John’s, January 31… The Government of Antigua and Barbuda has decided to close its borders, effective immediately, to travellers from the People’s Republic of China. The decision has been taken in light of the declaration by the World Health Organization (WHO) that the fast-spreading coronavirus, which has infected more than 8,200 people across the world, is a global health emergency.
Prime Minister Gaston Browne noted that “a global health emergency is also defined by the WHO as a ‘public health emergency of international concern’ and as ‘an extraordinary event’ that is ‘serious.
“In this connection”, the Prime Minister said, “Antigua and Barbuda, as small island communities, has to mitigate against any threat to health of its citizens and residents.
At the same time, the Antigua and Barbuda leader joined the Emergency Committee of the WHO in praising the leadership and political commitment of the very highest levels of Chinese government, “for taking very strong measures and comprehensive multi-sectoral approaches to prevent further spread of the virus”.
“The concern shown by China for the rest of the world is highly commendable”, Prime Minister Browne said.
He concluded “My Government will monitor developments related to the coronavirus and will continue to strengthen its capacity to respond to any eventuality related to this novel virus.
We also wish to assure the families of Antigua and Barbuda students, now in China, that we will remain in contact with them and take every possible step to ensure their well-being.
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The government of Antigua and Barbuda should go one step further and airlift all of our citizens from China and give notice to all Chinese living in Antigua and Barbuda to leave with immediate effect.
The government of Antigua and Barbuda has a duty to put the safety and health of our nation above Chinese investments; the Chinese have had a long history of various pagan practices that are foreign to our shores and the Coronavirus is just one of many.
The actions of the Chinese is no different to that of our former colonialists who raided our lands and left us with all sorts of health disease; the outbreak of coronavirus is a tip of the iceberg, Antiguans and Barbudans should be in no doubt that their health is severely at risk and should take every step to stop eating Chinese food and purchasing their food product, as the truth is we do not know how they grow their food products, nor do we know of their ingredients used in creating food.
The Chinese community living in Antigua and Barbuda have profited well from us and it’s now time that our Prime Minister take a bold step and bid them goodbye, as delaying this process could ultimately have a catastrophic impact on our nation, in the meantime, I would urge our people to avoid consuming Chinese food, use face maks, especially when coming into direct contact with Chines people and always wash hands from wrists to elbows and use hand sanitisers.
Once again slow to act as two persons have arrived and will be in quarantine for the next two weeks. At home? who’s making sure they don’t leave or have visitors? We don’t have millions of persons to build hospitals in two weeks. So far all we hear is they are following protocols? I’ll bet they have no idea what to do. They probably are the ones that bought up all the surgical masks waiting for the situation to get worse so they can profit.