Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, who is said to be suffering from the ‘flu’, was granted leave from Parliament yesterday - the latest engagement the PM has missed since he fell ill recently.
Rowley has missed recent daily engagements since it was reported on Tuesday that he was ill.
Though he was in the midst of last Sunday’s PNM convention in Port of Spain- and looking in good spirits then - Rowley didn’t attend Tuesday’s PNM Local Government campaign meeting in San Fernando where it was revealed he had the flu. Nor did he attend a PNM “election goodies” function in the battleground seat of Sangre Grande on Wednesday.
On Thursday Rowley was also absent from PNM’s Local Government campaign meeting in San Juan though he’d been advertised in radio ads to attend.
At the San Juan meeting, Finance Minister Colm Imbert said Rowley was down with a bout of the flu but was “recovering well.” Imbert was the featured speaker for that meeting instead of Rowley.
Yesterday in Parliament where Rowley was scheduled to answer questions in the usual monthly segment, House Speaker Bridgid Annisette- George said Rowley had sought leave from yesterday’s sitting. The questions for the Prime Minister were deferred to the next sitting.
PNM’s Balisier House headquarters said the next PNM Local Government meeting is at Signature Hall in Chaguanas next Tuesday and Rowley is expected to attend.
Yesterday in Parliament, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said Government has brought in 100,000 doses of the flu vaccine which are available at all health centres. But he said the uptake by the public on vaccines at the health centres has been “disappointingly low.”
Deyalsingh added, “I urge the categories of people that would like to vaccinate - pregnant women, children between six months to five years, those immuno-compromised, the elderly, especially those with diabetes and health care workers, make yourselves available for the free vaccines.”
On a specific case, Deyalsingh said there was one suspected case of the H1N1 flu at the Chaguanas North Secondary School concerning a teacher. He said the teacher has since fully recovered. But he said there has been no confirmation of H1n1 at the school. He added that since the teacher’s illness, the school has been sanitised.