Authorities seize some gas stations in Martinique amid protests Coronavirus pandemic News

Protests against COVID-19, including mandatory coups for health workers, are taking place on Caribbean island territory.

French authorities have announced that they are taking control of some fuel stations on the Caribbean island of Martinique, following days of protests against measures to limit the deployment of COVID-19 due to concerns about fuel supply.

Residents who are angry with the management of the pandemic – and specifically with the vaccination requirements of health workers – have set up barricades in recent days and in some cases he exchanged shots with police.

The vaccination order also applies to health workers in mainland France, but it has touched a nerve between the majority of blacks in Martinique and the neighboring island. Guadalupe.

Some have called the order a setback to the era of slavery, stressing that they need to make their own choices about health treatment.

The prefect of Martinique said in a statement that he was taking seven fuel power plants to ensure the supply of emergency personnel, such as firefighters and ambulances, “because of the risks of refueling at gas stations.”

In recent days, protesters have set up barricades and, in some cases, burned cars.

Local authorities cleared some of the debris, a witness told Reuters news agency after a union leader asked them to raise the barricades.

Serge Letchimy and Lucien Saliber of the Collective Territory of Martinique (CTM), which runs the island, called for calm and condemned the violence near the barricades. “We need to call on everyone to be calm,” CTM wrote on its Twitter account.

French BFM TV, citing police, said earlier that the shootings took place for a second night.

Alexane Ozier-Lafontaine, 21, a Martinique teacher who joined the protests, said people were angry with the vaccination order and the cancellation of a local holiday.

He also said that tourists made fewer restrictions on their movements than locals.

“People are very angry about this,” Ozier-Lafontain said in a telephone interview on Wednesday, adding that he heard gunshots on Tuesday night.

Protesters are also angry at the use of a chemical pesticide called chlordecone in banana plantations in Guadeloupe and Martinique. The pesticide on both islands has been linked to unusually high rates of prostate cancer.

Agricultural workers have been under the influence of chlordecone for decades, a situation that French President Emmanuel Macron has described as an “environmental scandal,” according to French media.