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  • LETTER: In quarantine for over a month with no COVID test result

LETTER: In quarantine for over a month with no COVID test result

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Good Day, I hope everyone is doing well and staying safe.

I’d like to share the experience of someone who’s in quarantine currently awaiting her results from the Ministry of Health.

This person has been in quarantine for over a month and up to this day, no one from the Ministry of Health can communicate anything to her about whether she’s positive or negative.

This is quite disheartening since this also means that the Ministry of Health has not even done contact tracing with her coworkers or family.

After getting very frustrated, she started to call around and speak to everyone she could. As you’d imagine this became quite a difficult task, from poor customer service to just blatant disregard for her health.

When she was finally able to get in touch with someone at the Ministry of Health they told her that they had no record of her ever even being in quarantine and that they don’t know anything about her sample.

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Additionally they fed her lies about how MOH only receives positive results. This in itself doesn’t make any sense because MOH should receive both positive and negative results so that they could communicate those results to the relevant individuals.

But anyways, as she continued to call around, it seems blame was being deflected at every corner.

After contacting the Lab at Mount St John’s they gave her a run around story about how her sample was never processed (1 month after it was taken) due to missing information on the information form which is filled out when you’re taking a PCR test for the government.

I’d like to know what information could possibly be missing from this simple form for them not to process the sample of a likely positive individual.

This delay could have resulted in multiple people being infected since MOH would not have done any contact tracing until this individual’s result comes back to them.

This level of incompetence, ignorance and just disrespect for public safety is the reason our cases are increasing so rapidly.

Furthermore, I believe there are many more cases undiscovered due to the lack of communication from MOH and situations like this where people’s samples are misplaced or people just never hear back from their assigned nurse.

I think there needs to be a better process in place for this. You cannot have situations like this happening.

The girl doesn’t even know how to move forward with her life because she cannot return to work without this test result.

Sincerely,
Concerned Friend

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2 responses to “LETTER: In quarantine for over a month with no COVID test result”

  1. I am experiencing the same thing. It is frustrating nobody seems to know anything. It plays on your mental health being locked away without answers.

  2. The health department need to re-strategize how it is going about collecting and handling data during this pandemic. Collecting data is very important during this pandemic. Data is what use to make crucial decisions. I believe either these people are stressed out and overwhelmed, or there is a lot incompetent people working in this ministry. Each staff can be assigned or designated to at least 5 COVID persons in quarantine which I think they’re capable to manage.

REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST

(CONSULTING SERVICES – INDIVIDUAL SELECTION)

 

OECS MSME Guarantee Facility Project

Loan No.: IDA-62670, IDA-62660, IDA-62640, IBRD-88830, IDA-62650

Assignment Title: Senior Operating Officer (SOO)

Reference No. KN-ECPCGC-207852-CS-INDV

 

The Governments of Antigua and Barbuda, Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines have received financing in the amount of US$10 million equivalent from the World Bank towards the cost of establishing a partial credit guarantee scheme, and they intend to apply part of the proceeds to payments for goods, and consulting services to be procured under this project. 

The consultant will serve as the “Senior Operating Officer (SOO)” for the ECPCGC and should possess extensive knowledge of MSME lending with some direct experience lending to Micro, small and medium-sized businesses, knowledge of the internal control processes necessary for a lending operation and the ability to design and implement risk mitigation procedures. The ideal candidate should possess an Undergraduate Degree from a reputable college or university, preferably in Business, Accounting, Banking or related field, with a minimum of 5 years’ experience in lending, inclusive of MSME lending. The initial employment period will be for two years on a contractual basis. Renewal of the contract will be subject to a performance evaluation at the end of the contractual period. The assignment is expected to begin on September 30th, 2021.  The consultant will report directly to the Chief Executive Officer of the ECPCGC.

The detailed Terms of Reference (TOR) for the assignment can be viewed by following the attached link below. 

 

https://bit.ly/3iVannm

 

The Eastern Caribbean Partial Credit Guarantee Corporation (ECPCGC) now invites eligible “Consultants” to indicate their interest in providing the Services. Interested Consultants should provide information demonstrating that they have:

  • An Undergraduate Degree from a reputable college or university, preferably in Business, Finance, Banking or related field; and
  • Minimum of 5 years’ experience in MSME lending. Applicants should also have:
  • The ability to design and implement risk management procedures 
  • Extensive knowledge of MSME lending with some direct experience lending to small and medium-sized businesses
  • Extensive knowledge of MSME banking operations
  • Knowledge of the internal controls necessary for a lending operation and the ability to design and implement risk management procedures
  • Experience developing and presenting information in public, including responding to questions in real-time
  • Experience lending to MSMEs located in the ECCU
  • Knowledge of marketing and communicating with the MSME sector
  • Ability to draft procedures to be used in a lending operation
  • Familiarity with the mechanics of a loan guarantee program
  • Exceptional written, oral, interpersonal, and presentation skills, and
  • Proficiency in the use of Microsoft Office suite.

The attention of interested Individual Consultants is drawn to Section III, Paragraphs 3.14, 3.16, and 3.17 of the World Bank’s Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers July 2016, [revised November 2017] (“Procurement Regulations”), setting forth the World Bank’s policy on conflict of interest. A Consultant will be selected in accordance with the Approved Selection Method for Individual Consultants set out in the clause 7.34 of the World Bank Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers. 

 

Further information can be obtained at the address below during office hours 0800 to 1700 hours:

Eastern Caribbean Partial Credit Guarantee Corporation

Brid Rock, Basseterre,

St. Kitts.

Expressions of interest must be delivered in a written form by e-mail by August 11th, 2021, to [email protected]

 

For further information, please contact:

Carmen Gomez-Trigg                                                            Bernard Thomas

Chief Executive Officer                                                          Chief Financial Officer

Tel: 868-620-8144                                                                  Tel: 869-765-2385

Email: [email protected]                                          [email protected]