As all CARICOM Member States and Associate States now have confirmed COVID-19 cases and, as predictions indicate that cases will continue to rise globally, humanity’s vulnerability and that of the systems we utilise, are again being highlighted.
The FAO Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean has taken the task to coordinate and carry out a series of discussions, through online conferences, focused on the effects of COVID-19 on the agri-food system.The fifth webinar of the FAO-COVID-19 and Food Systems Series, co-organized with the strategic collaboration of the CARICOM Secretariat, will focus on “Enabling agricultural investment in the Caribbean for an effective response and post-COVID-19 recovery”.
The outbreak of the COVId-19 disease was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, with the earliest known case with symptoms being revealed on 1 December 2019. It was later declared as a Public Health Emergency by the World Health Organization on 30 January 2020, and, subsequently, as a pandemic on 11 March 2020. As of 24 April 2020, close to three million cases of COVID-19 have been reported, about 190,000 death
Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. 29 April 2020. Although there is no vaccine against the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), vaccinations against seasonal influenza and measles are available to prevent respiratory illness and vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks during the COVID-19 pandemic. If vaccination programmes are not continued, more people are likely to get sick from vaccine-preventable diseases, thus increasing the burden on the already strained health systems.
“We, women and girls, can be proud of the special perspective we bring to the STEM field and other fields.”– CARICOM Deputy Secretary-General
CARICOM Deputy Secretary-General, Amb. Manorma Soeknandan, Ph.D, has called for the narrowing of the gender gap between men and women in the field of ICT.
The CARICOM Digital Dialogue is organized by the CARICOM Girls in ICT Partnership.
San Jose, 20 April 2020 (IICA). Thirteen Caribbean Ministers of Agriculture participated in a videoconference with the Director General of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), in which they discussed strategies to bolster agricultural activity and to safeguard the food supply amidst the ongoing health crisis, in a region that relies heavily on food imports and on tourism.
The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Girls in ICT Partnership will host an online regional event to celebrate International Girls in ICT Day on 23 April, 2020.
(Caribbean Development Bank Press Release) The Board of Directors of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) met this week and approved up to US$140 million to be used by the Bank’s Borrowing Member Countries to tackle the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic and other shocks to their economy.
(Guyana Chronicle) In an earnest letter on behalf of the Caribbean Region, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Browne, has written to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (MF) requesting specific financial attention, as the Region grapples with significant economic loss linked to tourism and braces for the catastrophic effects of the hurricane season.