UPP CHAIR SAYS PM’S DEMAND ASTRAZENECA VACCINES FROM UK GOVERNMENT

The Chairperson of the United Progressive Party (UPP), D. Gisele Isaac, sees the Prime Minister’s call for 100,000 AstraZeneca vaccines from the United Kingdom as exploitation.

Last week, a news service reported that two UK nationals who recently visited Antigua and Barbuda had been diagnosed with a new variant of the COVID-19 virus.

Prime Minister Gaston Browne contends that the article made it appear that the new strain originated here, and he asserts that the news report has damaged the country’s tourism prospects.

Accordingly, he immediately wrote to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and requested that Antigua and Barbuda be compensated to the tune of 100,000 vaccines.

Isaac, however, opines that there was nothing factually wrong with the report, which simply stated that two persons had contracted a new variant of the virus.

Isaac further says she does not believe the island suffered any major irreparable damage, as is being claimed by Browne.

The UPP Chair says the Prime Minister is making the situation into a political matter and not a medical one.