~ Vaccines will not be made mandatory on St. Maarten, PM Jacobs.~
PHILIPSBURG:--- Minister of VSA Omar Ottley confirmed on Wednesday at the Council of Ministers press briefing that two patients that were admitted to the St. Maarten Medical for illnesses unrelated to the coronavirus contracted the disease while at the SMMC and have died due to the coronavirus.
Minister Ottley said these patients died last weekend and while they had underlying conditions it had to be determined whether or not the two persons lost their lives due to the coronavirus or the other illness. He said based on the conclusions of the medical professionals both patients lost their lives due to COVID -19 and as such further research is being conducted to determine exactly how the patients contracted the virus.
The Minister said that currently, St. Maarten has 258 active cases of the coronavirus while 38 persons have died from the COVID-19. Ottley said that based on the results he received 100% of the infected were infected with the Delta variant of COVID-19. The Minister of VSA said that on July 12th said St. Maarten had 19 active cases, two of which were the Delta variant, he said he warned the St. Maarten community about the Delta variant that is far more potent with a faster infectious rate. Ottley further explained that he as Minister of VSA extended the vaccination program twice in the month of July in order to give everyone the opportunity to get vaccinated.
Asked by SMN News if the Government of St. Maarten and the coalition partners considered making the vaccines mandatory for healthcare workers since the incident at the St. Maarten Medical Center. Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs said that up to this moment the Government of St. Maarten is not considering making it a law to mandate anyone to vaccinate against COVID-19. Jacobs said the government of St. Maarten will not infringe on anyone’s rights when it comes to vaccination. She said that the people of St. Maarten know exactly what they need to do to seize the spread of the coronavirus. Jacobs said this is not the first time there was a spike in the numbers and people just need to follow the protocols in place.
The Prime Minister also called on everyone to allow the St. Maarten Medical Center to further investigate how the patients got infected while being a patient at the St. Maarten Medical Center. She said the SMMC recently announced that they are no longer visitors for patients due to the rise of COVID-19 cases. However, the Prime Minister said that that SMMC cannot rule out that those two patients were infected by persons who may have visited them.
It should be noted that several staff members, mainly nurses that are working at the Medical and Surgical ward of the SMMC were infected with the coronavirus and were working normally.
