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FILE – This 2003 electron microscope image made available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows mature, oval-shaped monkeypox virions, left, and spherical immature virions, right, obtained from a sample of human skin. –

Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh has said eight suspected cases locally of the monkeypox virus tested negative for the disease. He said there are no other samples waiting for testing at this time.

Speaking at the ministry’s weekly media conference on Wednesday, Deyalsingh said the development of local testing capacity was part of the ministry’s preparation for the arrival of the monkeypox virus in Trinidad and Tobago.

“We have local capacity for testing and will continue to test as far as we have suspect cases. We have sent eight samples for testing locally and all have come back negative so far.

“We continue to urge people to be vigilant on the monkeypox front, to be aware of the modes of transmission which include intimate skin to skin contact, and via the sharing of clothes, sleeping on the same bed, using the same towels. Whether it’s clothes, bedding, towels – the virus can be transmitted in those surfaces – those things are to be avoided.”

Deyalsingh said the ministry has placed an indicative order with the Pan-American Health Organisation for 2,000 doses of the monkeypox vaccine. He said there was no firm confirmation of prices or arrival date as yet.

“The vaccine is a two-dose vaccine, which means it could vaccinate approximately 1,000 people. The vaccines will be reserved for the close contacts of a confirmed case and any healthcare workers who want to be vaccinated against monkeypox.

“We anticipate a maximum of ten close contacts – relatives, work colleagues, etc, – of a confirmed case. Therefore 1,000 vaccines will vaccinate the close contacts of 100 cases. At the moment the entire Caricom region has approximately ten-15 cases in total, so while we are catering for 100 cases, the likelihood at this point in time of TT getting 100 cases is relatively low.”

Deyalsingh said if conditions warranted, more vaccines would be bought but currently there was no information available on the expiry dates or prices of the vaccines. He again called on larger nations who had access to monkeypox vaccines to make them available to smaller countries, noting that the five deaths from the disease so far have taken place on the African continent, where no vaccines were available.

The minister said no nation worldwide tests incoming travellers for the monkeypox virus. He said at TT’s ports of entry, thermal scanning remained in effect.

The monkeypox virus typically lasts two-four weeks. Asked how the issue of sick leave would be dealt with, as most employees received two weeks’ sick leave a year, Deyalsingh said that would be dealt with by other agencies.

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After days of agonising wait, all members of the Indian and West Indies teams have been officially cleared to travel to the United States of America. They will be playing two T20I games in Florida this weekend.

Thanks to the intervention of the Guyana government, the US Visas for some players and support staff of the two sides could be obtained, albeit at the eleventh hour. Cricbuzz can confirm that it required the efforts of Irfan Ali, the President of Guyana, to get the travel approvals. “It was a timely and influential diplomatic effort by His Excellency,” said Ricky Skerritt, the president of Cricket West Indies (CWI), thanking the head of the Guyana government.

India’s Captain and Coach, Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid, were amongst those given Interviews at the US Embassy in Guyana at President Ali’s intervention

As earlier reported, those without the visas were flown to Georgetown in Guyana after the third T20I in St Kitts on Tuesday (August 2) night for interviews at the US Embassy. Among those who attended the interviews were India skipper Rohit Sharma and head coach Rahul Dravid. There were, in fact, 14 of them from the Indian touring party who did not have the travel approvals.

Others, including Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Dinesh Karthik, Ravi Bishnoi, Suryakumar Yadav and Kuldeep Yadav, have reached Miami meanwhile. They will be joined by the rest of the teammates on Thursday night.

“They can fly only tomorrow afternoon. All Visa applications have been approved but passports are not to be returned until this afternoon,” Skerritt said, revealing the reason for the delayed travel. “All that the CWI could do has been done. Last night’s charter to Miami, for those previously with visas, was at greater financial risk to delay it than to operate it as previously planned,” Skerritt further said.

President Dr Irfaan Ali

Meanwhile, it has been learnt that Rohit will be available for the last two games on Saturday and Sunday. The India skipper retired hurt during the team’s chase against West Indies in the 3rd T20I in Warner Park, Basseterre, St Kitts, on Tuesday. He had scored 11 off five balls when he had to leave the field. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said the skipper suffered a back spasm. He is now learnt to have recovered. India went on to win the game to take a 2-1 lead in the five-match series. (cricbuzz)

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El director general de la Administración de Servicios Médicos (ASEM), Lcdo. Jorge Matta González, emitió declaraciones ante la manifestación que realizaron hoy empleados de ASSMCA, Departamento de Salud, UDH, Pediátrico, Cardiovascular y de la ASEM por mejores salarios y condiciones laborales.

“Respetamos el derecho de los compañeros a manifestarse. Por nuestra parte, estamos enfocados en completar el proceso de desembolso del aumento salarial de reclutamiento que se otorgó a los profesionales de la salud que incluye no sólo a los técnicos de sala de operaciones, sino también a los técnicos quirúrgicos, de suministros estériles, ortopedia, farmacia, asistente dental, prelavado, instrumentos quirúrgicos, oftalmología y tecnólogos de cuidados respiratorios. Esto significa que los nuevos que entrten tendrán ese salario y los que están por debajo, se les ajustará a este nuevo mínimo.

Estamos conscientes de que no es suficiente para la responsabilidad que tienen en sus manos, pero es un buen comienzo. Los aumentos aprobados se comenzarán a recibir en la segunda quincena del mes de agosto y como se autorizaron con carácter retroactivo al 1 de julio, el personal estará recibiendo el aumento en su quincena, más lo adeudado del mes de julio. Esta noticia viene acompañada del aumento de salario base para los enfermeros que también entró en vigor a partir del 1ero de julio.

Este problema de la escasez se viene arrastrando desde hace varios años, pero se visibilizó al declararse la pandemia y ante esa realidad de inmediato en la ASEM hemos actuado. Desde noviembre del año pasado sometimos una petición de aumento salarial en la solicitud presupuestaria para el reclutamiento de personal. Quiero dejar claro que esa solicitud se hizo desde el año pasado y está autorizada.

Por último debo decir que, por órdenes del Gobernador Pedro Pierluisi, actualmente se trabaja con un plan de retribución y reclasificación para todos los empleados de los hospitales del gobierno, el cual debe entrar en vigor en los primeros meses del próximo año”, concluyó.

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Vice-Chancellor of The University of the West Indies (The UWI), Professor Sir Hilary Beckles has been elected by his peers across the international academic community to serve on the governing Council for the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU).

This new leadership role for Vice-Chancellor Beckles follows his recent appointment by UNESCO in May this year, to serve on the Council of the United Nations University for a six-year term, as well as his recognition as UN Visionary Expert on Higher Education in 2021.

Our Council represents the diversity and strength of Commonwealth cooperation and our Strategic Plan, The Road to 2030

The announcement was made on July 29 in a statement from the ACU, naming the newest members of its governance body who will be responsible for overseeing the association’s activities and determining its future strategic direction. Vice-Chancellor Beckles’ appointment is for three years until August 2025.

The ACU is the world’s first and oldest international university network, established in 1913 to provide a forum for universities to share information, knowledge, and ideas.

The ACU Council comprises Vice-Chancellors from across the Commonwealth, each of whom has been nominated and elected by their peers within the ACU membership network, and will also act as a Trustee for the association. The other new members elected to the Council include Professor Abiodun H. Adebayo from Covenant University, Nigeria; Professor Barney Glover AO from Western Sydney University, Australia; Senior Professor Sudantha Liyanage from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka and Professor Wendy Thomson CBE from University of London, UK.

Commenting on the appointment, Vice-Chancellor Beckles said, “It is indeed an honour to be invited to serve within the ACU, particularly in this capacity to impact its future strategic direction. The University of the West Indies has a legacy of partnership with the Association of Commonwealth Universities that we are proud to continue to nurture in this new dimension of service. This is also another opportunity to deepen my lifelong career engagement in higher education. I am grateful and humbled.”

Welcoming the newly elected Council members, ACU Chief Executive and Secretary General Dr Joanna Newman said, “I am delighted to be welcoming five new members to the ACU’s Council today. Our Council represents the diversity and strength of Commonwealth cooperation and our Strategic Plan, The Road to 2030, makes the case for the role of Higher Education in addressing each of the 17 SDGs. I look forward to working closely with our Council members in our shared mission to build a better world through higher education.”

Chair of ACU Council, and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, Professor Cheryl de la Rey, added, “A warm welcome to our newest members of the ACU Council, who join us as the world emerges from a period of unprecedented disruption. They bring with them a wealth of leadership experience and I look forward to sharing in their knowledge, drawing on our diverse communities, and working together to ensure the ACU continues to be a dynamic and exciting global network at the heart of international higher education – now and into the future.”

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Slide over, Jamaican bobsledders. A group of expats from the ice-free island are hoping to bring a whole new winter sport to their tropical homeland: curling.

Three decades after Jamaica crashed the Winter Olympics — and then crashed at the Winter Olympics — with the bobsled team made famous in the movie “Cool Runnings,” the country has joined the World Curling Federation (WCF). The status allows it to compete in international events, and the new national governing body is hoping that formal recognition will help the sport break through in a place better known for sprinters, reggae and rum.

“The bobsled team broke the ice — pardon the pun,” Curling Jamaica president Ben Kong said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “Now there’s sort of an acceptance that Jamaicans can compete in any sport, even if it is a winter sport.”

Born on Scottish lochs and most popular among Scandinavians, Scots and Canadians, curling is riding a post-Olympic boost from TV viewers who quadrennially fall in love with the quirky sport with the sweeping and shouting and chess-like strategy. Lately, that’s brought the sport to some new — and non-white — nations.

Since the Pyeongchang Games in 2018, the WCF has recognised federations in the Dominican Republic, Kenya, Bolivia, Turkmenistan, India and Kuwait. Jamaica is the first to join since the Beijing Olympics, earning conditional status last month as the third member from the Caribbean.

WCF president Kate Caithness called it “an exciting milestone for the sport as we continue to increase our members in nontraditional curling nations.”

Curling Jamaica technical director Cristiene Hall-Teravainen, who moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba, when she was six, said that after taking up curling in Canada she saw exactly one other person of colour in competitions: a Russian.

“Now with these other countries — with the WCF, I think they’re doing an amazing job of being inclusive, and promoting the sport around the world,” she said. “Africa, India — where there’s minorities playing the sport and loving it — I think it’s going to build and build and build. I see big things in the future.”

Kong, 46, moved to Canada as a baby but didn’t start curling until about a decade ago. “Then came the crazy dream about ‘Why don’t we put a Jamaican curling team together?’” he said.

Crazy, except for one thing: The Caribbean island where ice usually goes in drinks sent a bobsled team to the Olympics in 1988, a fish-out-of-water story chronicled in the 1993 Disney movie “Cool Runnings.”

It was the country’s Winter Games debut, and Jamaicans have competed at every Olympics since except for Turin, in 2006. In Beijing, Benjamin Alexander competed in the giant slalom — another first.

Someday, maybe curling, too.

“They paved the way for Jamaica. It was huge what the bobsled team did,” Hall-Teravainen said. “I don’t think we’re riding their coattails, but we’re marching right behind them.”

In all, Kong has found nine women and five men, 12 of them living in Canada and two in the United States. Most are dual citizens.

Three of the women have competitive experience; Hall-Teravainen is the most accomplished of them, having once competed in Canada’s senior provincial championships. She figures to be the anchor of a Jamaican team that is hoping to compete in the World Mixed Championships in Aberdeen, Scotland, in October.

Of the five men, only one has played competitively. “Our men’s team, while we have enough warm bodies, that team needs some developing,” Kong said.

Curling Jamaica secretary general Andrew Walker, a recreational curler who once won the Monday night house league at his home club, said finding other Jamaican curlers was “a lightbulb moment” for him.

Now he sees a spark in other Jamaicans’ eyes when they watch him curl.

“A young lady came up to me and said, ‘You know, I wasn’t going to come but then I saw you and I thought, “Hey, I can do that, too,”‘” he said. “It gives people the permission to go out and give it a try. They can see someone like themselves.

“Because it was never there in their old country, they don’t seek it out. They’ll seek out soccer and cricket and what have you, but curling is not on the radar,” he said. “So this will hopefully put it more on the radar.”

And he hopes WCF recognition will help get the word out.

“There are Jamaicans in every country on the planet. I’m quite sure out there in the Jamaican diaspora are curlers like myself — and better than myself,” Walker said. “This is the first step to let them know that we’re out here, and we want to hear from you.”

For now, the dozen Canada-based Jamaicans have set up a home base at the Unionville Curling Club outside of Toronto that, at more than 100 years old, is twice as old as the independent nation of Jamaica.

Their debut competition was a friendly coed scrimmage against Hong Kong in April that was limited to three-person teams because of pandemic protocols; Hong Kong was leading 10-4 after four ends when the sides decided that keeping score wasn’t the point.

Hall-Teravainen noted that it’s not uncommon for even well-established curling programs to train abroad, where coaches and ice sheets and plentiful and the competition is robust.

“Even countries that have ice come here to train,” she said. “Jamaica has a hockey team that plays out of Florida.”

Kong said the goal is to build a program in which the curling is played “in Jamaica, by Jamaicans.”

And if Disney comes calling with a movie deal?

“I’m still thinking of what actor I want to play me,” he said.

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