Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders will meet today to discuss the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 on the region.
Prime Minister Mia Mottley, who is also the Chair of the 15-member regional integration grouping, said that the summit was necessary given the impact the virus, which has killed more than 100,000 people worldwide since it was first detected in China last December, has had on the Caribbean.
“There will be a special Heads of government meeting. I have written to my colleague heads and asked that we meet, on Wednesday, April 15, so that we can share ideas, share experiences, first and foremost, but also look and see whether this is not the moment when CARICOM’s true promise is upon us,” the Prime Minister disclosed.
She said the notion of a single domestic space, a single market, “and what, therefore, are those things that we need to do in order to allow our sovereign boundaries to have a virtual reality that is the CARICOM entity, the Caribbean Community, while the legal sovereign boundaries remain.”
Every CARICOM country has reported cases of the virus, for which there is no cure or vaccine. Many regional countries have implemented lockdowns, curfews and other measures to prevent the spread of the virus.
Barbados is among CARICOM countries that have also registered deaths from the virus. The other CARICOM countries include Antigua and Barbuda, Guyana, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica.
