CARPHA commends Ministry on recommendations
ZIZ News — The Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) has commended the government of St. Kitts-Nevis on the implementation of recommendations made earlier this year.
During a press conference Thursday morning CARPHA’s Director of Surveillance for Disease Control and Prevention and Control, Dr. Babatunde Olowokure said the agency was satisfied with the measures taken to rectify the situation at the Basseterre High School.
“Based on the recommendations that we have made we find the current remediation being conducted in the school to be satisfactory and we would like to commend all involved for playing their role in an effort to respond to this particular situation,” he said.
He said once these recommendations are carried out it is expected that there should be less health complaints.
“From our experience, my personal experience as well as that of my colleague, as well as the scientific evidence, what we know is that remediation activities, once they are carried out, in situations like this, there tends to be a very significant decrease in health complaints in the staff as well as the students,” Dr. Olowokure noted.
Minister of Education, the Hon. Nigel Carty said going forward, the school needs to take responsibility for the day to day management and upkeep of the property and materials.
“There is no reason why the ministry should have to intervene in the future to make sure that chemicals are well stored in labs and making sure that labs are free of dust and for making sure that chemicals are well-labelled and covered and stored in their proper places. Those are responsibilities that must be taken very seriously by the management of the school.”
He said throughout this renovation the government has spent about six million dollars in physical repairs to Basseterre High.
Meanwhile, the Caribbean Research Institute is also on island conducting air tests at the Basseterre High School.
The results of those tests will be made public after they have been compiled and analysed.