Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines Dr. Ralph Gonsalves & PPP Supporter Clocked In Head With A Rock
Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Hon. Dr. Ralph Gonsalves sustained a head injury earlier tonight, August 5, in the capital as he attempted to pass through a mob of angry protesters.
“Somebody just hit the Prime Minister with a stone!” shouted a man repeatedly during a video that has since been widely circulated in the media of the incident.
A photo showing the Prime Minister in surroundings that appear to be a medical facility with a blood-stained shirt is also in circulation.
A protester also had to be taken to a hospital after sustaining injuries when the protest turned violent.
According to news reports from the volcano battered territory, the Kingstown protest was against an amendment to the Public Health Bill.
“This is a very short Bill, and there are two sections to it, one, is to empower the Chief Medical Officer to be the person who would oversee any exemptions granted to any person in respect of a medical certificate issued by a medical practitioner. An exemption on medical grounds if you are not taking the vaccine,” he said during the Round Table Talk Programme recently.
He continued: “Secondly, to remove, a word ‘voluntary’ by tidying up an amendment that was made on April 9th last year to the principal Act of 1977.”
Hon. Gonsalves then explained that he believes that there is a misunderstanding with the proposed amendments.
“I think the issue which some persons completely misreading what we are doing is that they are saying that this is to make mandatory the vaccine, but that is not the case as I have explained it. Indeed already on the law, there is a provision to make vaccines mandatory; the provision in the 1977 Public Health Act, but we have not used that provision, and we do not intend to use that provision,” he remarked.
Despite his reasoning, some Trade Unionists argued that it was his administration’s way of making the COVID-19 vaccination mandatory for some category of workers, which has been met with pushbacks from some quarters, which resulted in the protest action.
The Gonsalves-led administration was slated to debate the amendments during parliament’s sitting today.