While Aruba patted itself on its back endlessly early in the pandemic, for various reasons we all know, it is now everywhere.
What to do now?
It is obvious from the number of carriers daily, that we are not testing enough.
Just like other countries we need to set up a field-operation to make testing accessible. By the time locals get to test, they are half dead — DVG has a timetable, rules, regulations, serving its needs instead of being tailored to the public’s needs.
Undocumented people on Aruba, 12,000, by consensus, have ZERO access to testing. They have no house-doctors, they go home and infect their peeps, because they live and work in close proximity to other people and often in crammed quarters.
Who is doing something about that?
For us to have 170+ carriers a day, we must be testing 3,400 people, that way we get an acceptable 5% infection among those tested, which is the norm.
What to do?
Throw money at our health-system so that it can better handle the severely sick, and the crazy accidents, and the surprise, emergency appendicitis. We don’t want people to die. We need to invest more money in health care. Not saving by cutting services, but creating savings by structural changes.
We need more money for Police for better enforcement, and the protection of the men in blue, test them regularly.
(This investment in Health-Care and Police must come from our benefactors. And they promised to help if we sign the aid-agreement. Incidentally, Curacao business sector has written directly to the Dutch Prime Minister to bypass the political apparat which is obstructing all help, desperately needed. Why hasn’t Aruba’s business community done it yet?
It looks like the Dutch are reaching out. This morning, they called a press conference, wishing to speak to the local media. I will be there, because we are stuck over here.)
Set up a drive thru testing facility, no one gets out of the car, those who are positive have to isolated/quarantine in their homes – difficult but not impossible.
We need all politicians and public personalities to model good behavior.
Repeat
We need all politicians and public personalities to model good behavior.
Last night’s press conference threatened to imposed SIP and a dry law, no alcohol sales during the upcoming weekend. The warning was unnecessary, because people will stock up, but if indeed, and GOA does it, impose a SIP and a dry law for three days, I urge the public to embrace it, and support it, because the effort is worth it, it will slow down the rate of infection.
Most importantly – fine violators in the public square.
Of course, members of my generation, you need to wash your hands more frequently than even, yawn, wear a mask indoor and outdoor in proximity to other people, yawn, and social distance, yawn. I know we are tired of hearing the mantra, but we cannot give up on the 60 plusers or the 70 plusers of our community, just because we don’t like the inconvenience.
Just as an epilogue: Both the Netherlands and Aruba are struggling with similar issues. The DVG and RIVM more or less follow the same regime and protocols and both advise a less strict control policy, so it is not surprising that both countries now achieve considerable pandemic spread, though Aruba has 6 times more carriers, in relative numbers, and in the Netherlands the number deaths is lower, because of good health care.
