APNU+AFC this evening flayed Minister of Health Dr Frank Anthony over a statement he made today about the COVID-19 status of MP Christopher Jones.
A statement from APNU+AFC follows:
APNU+AFC responds to irresponsible remarks from a confused
Minister of Health
The APNU+AFC Coalition notes with distress a News Room report disseminated earlier this afternoon “Speaker sanitized after Opposition MP Chris Jones tests positive for COVID-19.”
The release quotes the newly elected Speaker of the National Assembly as confirming that Health Minister Dr. Frank Anthony indicated to him that Mr. Christopher Jones tested positive for COVID 19 – the “dreaded disease”. We assume the accuracy of the report and wish to state that we find the statements by the Health Minister highly irresponsible given his office.
We are aware that since Dr. Frank Anthony has shown that he now has access to a citizen’s private health information we know that he is also in possession of other important facts surrounding this case. Mr. Jones’ positive test was done more than the fifteen days ago, which Dr. Anthony must be aware of but deliberated omitted to share. Mr. Jones underwent the recommended period of self-isolation, observed all protocols established by the Ministry of Health and his private health care professional. He therefore attended Parliament today confident that he was no threat to persons. All members of the APNU+AFC coalition will continue to observe these protocols until otherwise informed.
We wish to draw to the attention of the Health Minister and the Speaker a recent News Room/DPI report and to remind Dr. Anthony of his statements. In that report the Minister who holds responsibility for our Health Service and the management of the COVID 19 pandemic provided a few important guidelines. Firstly, as stated in that headline “no follow up test needed to be cleared of COVID 19” the Minister of Health explained that once a person tests positive for Covid they must be monitored for 10 days. Once they are free of symptoms, they will be monitored for another 3 days.
Regarding retesting Dr. Anthony stated categorically and we quote him: “This is absolutely unnecessary and …what you will be doing is clogging up the system because you do not need to retest. And for those persons who actually need the test, you are creating a backlog. So, we remind people once you have been in isolation after 13 days you can be discharged if you have no signs or symptoms,”. Minister Anthony noted that after completing the mandated 13 days, with no signs or symptoms then the person is deemed not infectious and can be cleared by a doctor. “They are not infectious. We would not want someone infectious to re-enter the public so the reason why we have this timeframe is to ensure that the person is not infectious” the Minister stated.
We note the duplicity of this situation as sitting in the National Assembly today were the current Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Business/Tourism who both tested positive for the “dreaded disease”. No explanation of their current status was shared with members of Parliament present.
The APNU+AFC rejects this malicious report and notes with alarm that the Minister of Health seems not to be able to recall his own statements and protocols. We hope that his confused state of mind is not responsible for the spiraling out of control positive COVID 19 cases which have doubled since he took control of the sector after months of marginal increases.
