SHAR­LENE RAM­PER­SAD

shar­lene.ram­per­sad@guardian.co.tt

Com­man­der of the US South­ern Com­mand (SOUTH­COM), Ad­mi­ral Craig Fall­er, says the do­na­tion of two mil­i­tary field hos­pi­tals to Trinidad and To­ba­go was an in­vest­ment in the se­cu­ri­ty of the US and this coun­try.

Fall­er was speak­ing af­ter tour­ing one of the two field hos­pi­tals with Health Min­is­ter Ter­rence Deyals­ingh at the Jean Pierre Com­plex, Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day.

That hos­pi­tal was closed on Au­gust 3 but the tents will re­main up in the event this coun­try ex­pe­ri­ences an­oth­er surge in COVID-19 in­fec­tions.

“As we walked through and heard the sto­ries of lives saved and the dif­fer­ence that this hos­pi­tal has made, it strikes me as not a do­na­tion but it’s an in­vest­ment, it’s an in­vest­ment in our shared se­cu­ri­ty be­cause health se­cu­ri­ty is na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty. It’s an in­vest­ment in this hemi­sphere and in our shared vi­sion for a se­cure, free, pros­per­ous hemi­sphere,” Fall­er said.

Over the week­end, the North West Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ty told Guardian Me­dia the field hos­pi­tal was not be­ing dis­man­tled but up­grades were be­ing done.

Fall­er said no one can fight the “in­vis­i­ble en­e­my” that is COVID-19 alone and team­work is crit­i­cal for sur­vival dur­ing the pan­dem­ic.

He said the long-stand­ing bi­lat­er­al re­la­tion­ship be­tween T&T and the US will con­tin­ue.

Fall­er said he has seen re­spect for prop­er­ty, life, the rule of law, free­dom and democ­ra­cy in this hemi­sphere and a vi­sion for fu­ture gen­er­a­tions.

“As we project in­to the fu­ture, whether it is transna­tion­al crim­i­nal or­gan­i­sa­tions that are mur­der­ous and want to un­der­cut all of our democ­ra­cies, by traf­fick­ing in peo­ple, arms and drugs, or vi­o­lent ex­trem­ists that have rained their death and de­struc­tion and their twist­ed view of ide­ol­o­gy around, or cli­mate change and nat­ur­al dis­as­ters and the vi­o­lence that wreaks on all of our pop­u­la­tions, it’s in­cum­bent that we work to­geth­er and stay to­geth­er,” Fall­er said.

He said the US South­ern Com­mand - as the de­fence part of the US gov­ern­ment - was com­mit­ted to work­ing to­wards that goal.

Fall­er said his vis­it to T&T in­clud­ed the tour of the fa­cil­i­ty, to “put eyes on the in­vest­ment” and to spend time talk­ing with of­fi­cials on how the US and T&T can col­lab­o­rate to strength­en the se­cu­ri­ty of the hemi­sphere.

“This hos­pi­tal tent is an ex­am­ple of where an out­stretched hand can do just as much as a clenched fist - cer­tain­ly our de­fence forces and my col­league and friend, (Chief of De­fence Staff, T&T De­fence Force) Com­modore (Dar­ryl) Daniel, is here, we need to be ready for any con­tin­gency but our le­git­i­ma­cy is in our con­nec­tion to our peo­ple,” Fall­er said.

Health Min­is­ter Deyals­ingh ex­pressed grat­i­tude on be­half of the Gov­ern­ment and peo­ple of T&T, say­ing the field hos­pi­tals came at the time when COVID cas­es were in­creas­ing rapid­ly.

“This act of gen­eros­i­ty by SOUTH­COM, which start­ed in Sep­tem­ber 2020, pro­vid­ed a much-need­ed boost­er shot to the par­al­lel health care sys­tem. The ex­pand­ed ca­pac­i­ty pro­vid­ed by this unit al­lowed us to in­crease pa­tient ac­com­mo­da­tion,” he said.

He said the av­er­age oc­cu­pan­cy from May 18 to Au­gust 3 was 74.2 per cent, with the av­er­age num­ber of pa­tients dai­ly was 21. In to­tal, 201 peo­ple were treat­ed at the hos­pi­tal in its ten weeks of op­er­a­tion.

The sec­ond field hos­pi­tal, which was al­so set up on May 18 at the Cou­va Hos­pi­tal, will re­main op­er­a­tional.