The Cabinet of Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs and the Department of Communication held a meeting on March 18, with TelEm Group, PJIA, Port St. Maarten, AUC School of Medicine, Government’s Public Service Center (PSC), and the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) ESF 7 Coordinator for Social development. The public relations and communication officers from several Minister’s cabinets and that of the Secretariat also participated in the meeting to pool resources and to increase communication via different mediums with the public to help combat COVID-19, through the dissemination of information.
Though continuously working together in one way or the other, these organizations and Prime Minister Jacobs thought it was important to bring all the stakeholders together, share COVID-19 communication plans, provide suggestions for communication activities and work together to bring information to the public to combat COVID-19. Together with pooled human and financial resources, more can be done for the public.
Prime Minster Jacobs said, “By joining public relations and communication efforts, collectively we are powerful and effective in strengthening our resources to combat COVID-19 and make our community as safe as is possible. We do not want this virus to spread. Therefore, as we communicate more with the public, we ask the public to pay keen attention and heed the advice accordingly.
This meeting facilitated opportunities for all stakeholders to provide suggestions and plans of actions that can be used jointly. In this manner, we can continue educating the general population on practicing safe hygiene and informing on what is being done to ensure that the COVID-19 is being contained in the community.
With this cooperation, one of the projects discussed is the TelEm ‘CORONA_INFO’ text messaging which was launched on March 19, 2020. This project enables TelEm to broadcast messages to all their subscribers. These messages encourage users to click on the link in the text message, which provides health tips and crucial information. In addition to the text message information, TelEm Group will continue their social responsibility by launching the CORONA VIRUS telephone line and other planned initiatives such as info-pamphlets (leaflets) and increased broadband for the American University of the Caribbean and that of the University of St. Martin to facilitate online learning.
Listen to Government Radio station – 107.9FM – for official information and updates or visit the Government website: www.sintmaartengov.org/coronavirus or its Facebook Page: Facebook.com/SXMGOV.