EXACTLY 3 140 signatures in less than a week.
That’s the number of Barbadians who have come forward to sign a petition against the siting of the isolation centre to be used for treating any Ebola patient in Barbados on the Enmore compound, less than 30 feet away from the St Ursuline Convent’s primary classrooms.
And yesterday afternoon the petition was hand-delivered to the Ministry of Health by a member of the school’s parent-teacher association.
School administrator Susan Chinnery said they moved quickly to get the petition in after they heard Minister of Health John Boyce say he had not received any petition from the school.
She said she could assure him that his permanent secretary would be able to present it to him today.
Chinnery said last night that she was very pleased with the response to the petition in such a short period and expected more signatures to come in as people felt strongly about the matter.
She said the petition “demonstrates the strength of the emotions involved. This is an instinctive reaction from parents seeking to protect their children from any threat whatsoever”.
On Tuesday, while telling reporters he had not received the petition as yet, Boyce said: “I think the important thing is that Barbados has to be prepared in the event that we have to deal with a case of Ebola. I do not have a timetable for that. I have a timetable for having Barbados in a position that we can deal with the situation should it ever arise.”
The ministry got the full force of the parents’ and teachers’ disapproval over the location of the site when they held a special meeting two weeks ago headed by senior officials including Permanent Secretary Tennyson Springer.
Chinnery said then that the school’s board of governors was expected to send off a letter to Prime Minister Freundel Stuart and Boyce, outlining their objection to the location of the centre.
Since then, Boyce, in a Ministerial Statement, said the facility was being designed in strict compliance with international standards for infection control, waste management and air quality, and was scheduled to be completed by November 1. (SP)
