COVID surge sends 400 Government Staff home says Deputy Governor

By Shanieka Smith

Staff Writer

#TurksandCaicos, January 15, 2022 – Twenty per cent of Government workers are home and it has caused a significant interruption in public services and revived the business continuity contingency for the sector said Her Excellency, Any Williams, the deputy governor and head of the Public Service for the Turks and Caicos Islands Government.

Deputy Governor, Anya Williams, said the new Covid-19 surge has significantly affected the public sector; at least 400 government workers are in isolation and quarantine. Last week, Williams confirmed a 10 per cent staff loss, but in a press conference with TCI media houses on Tuesday, she said that has now peaked and is 20 per cent of the 2,000 strong public sector workforce.

“Those numbers spread from across the police service to immigration to impacts on land registering, impacts on the DCR, and a number of other offices across government registration and citizenship,” said the Deputy Governor.

The advice has been for the public to return to using online services as government offices have had to revert to a hybrid system and staff bubbles.

“What we are doing now is that we are going back to having a hybrid of our previous shift systems where some persons, if you have a private office or if space permits in your office, you will work from the office versus if you are in a shared space and so on, we are asking some persons to alternate between the days that they work or working from home if they can,” she said.

Among the offices affected by the spike in cases to over 800 active cases at the peak this past week, were the Department of Road Safety, the Royal TCI Police, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Immigration and Border Services, the TCI Sports Commission, the District Commissioner’s office in South Caicos, TCI National Trust parks across North and Middle Caicos, the Customer Service Department, Registrar General’s Office, and Citizenship and Naturalization.