WILLEMSTAD - The government of Curaçao will make a medical request to the Netherlands, but for the time being there will be no lockdown such as a curfew.
With this, the Curaçao Prime Minister Gilmar Pisas is responding to the cry for help from the hospital CMC because of the shortage of personnel. The hospital wanted a curfew before the turn of the year.
But Pisas indicates right before the end of the year in a conversation with the hospital management that it was decided to make a request for help to the Netherlands for more medical personnel.
“We need between 16 and 20 people. With this number, we have the situation under control.”
The prime minister says that the pandemic has shown that a new hospital does not solve all the problems.
“We have built a new, large and expensive hospital, but it now appears that we do not have sufficient capacity due to the pandemic. Several departments have to be closed at the expense of service to patients. And that means we have to take measures to relieve staff pressure.”
What also plays a role is that hospital staff is struggling with trauma and mental problems because they have seen many corona patients die during the pandemic. 189 people have died so far, according to government figures.
In addition, many hospital employees are now infected. In addition, the prime minister says it was extra busy during the holidays because of the many car accidents and violent incidents.
However, Curaçao did not take any corona measures that drastically shut down public life. According to Prime Minister Pisas, an important reason is that the Omicron variant has not yet led to a large increase in hospital admissions. In addition, the island desperately needs income from tourism. And it doesn't benefit from a lockdown.
“We will not receive any liquidity support; the Netherlands is currently only helping with the health aspect. This means that we must provide for our own income. And in that context, a lockdown is not desirable.”
He did say they are evaluating a curfew. But the authorities are already having a hard time enforcing the current corona rules because many police officers have been infected. “This means the next two weeks will be hectic as there are not enough staff anywhere.”
Update: The government announced that today at 11:30 am they will hold a press conference to announce new measure.