While welcoming the Government’s decision to intensify the fight against Covid-19, the UHM Voice of the Workers, said that it feels that these were “weak measures, that are reactive and should have been taken earlier.”

The UHM stated that “despite the record number of new infections, the total number of active cases and an increasing mortality rate, the measures now announced are not as stringent as they were a year ago when the situation was much less alarming.”

It pointed out that the Government “doesn’t seem aware of the fact that since the beginning of 2021 the number of infections has increased by 16 times compared to the first wave between March and the beginning of July last year. Similarly, the number of deaths in January and February 2021 was 12 times higher than that recorded in the first wave.”

The UHM also pointed out that the reintroduction of remote working for employees in the public service and public entities announced by the Prime Minister confirmed what the union has been saying for months, “that the workers on government books have been denied this facility since after the first wave.”

In addition, it said that “the Government should ensure that what happened last year does not happen again, when telework employees were discriminated against because they were not given the allowances due to them.”

The union stated that it is also concerned about certain decisions that “hamper the testing capacity of Covid-19 at such a delicate time, including the decision not to allow allied healthcare professionals to perform rapid swab tests.” The UHM concluded by saying that “it is time for the Government to adopt a strategy based on scientific evidence, strict enforcement and public health safeguards. The half-hearted measures and the false sense of security only result in more deaths while making the economy take longer to recover.”

Photo by Alain Salvary

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