Gail Alexan­der

De­spite re­cu­per­at­ing, for­mer prime min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning has giv­en the green light for his an­nu­al Car­ni­val fete to go on. Ac­cord­ing to a state­ment from Man­ning's San Fer­nan­do East con­stituen­cy, Man­ning has told fam­i­ly mem­bers "de fete must go on." As a re­sult the con­stituen­cy will host the fete on Feb­ru­ary 12 at the usu­al San Fer­nan­do Hill venue from 4 pm to 2 am. Man­ning con­tin­ues to re­cu­per­ate at the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal from a mild stroke he suf­fered last week.

He has been sit­ting up, eat­ing and speak­ing and is en­ter­ing his sec­ond week of phys­io­ther­a­py. Doc­tors project he can re­gain full strength in a few months if he con­tin­ues at the cur­rent re­cov­ery rate. It is ex­pect­ed he may be re­leased from hos­pi­tal in the very near fu­ture. His wife, Hazel, said his doc­tors were op­ti­mistic about his progress and his re­cov­ery rate.