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Public Administration Minister Marlene McDonald is expected to be back at work after the next week when her medical sick leave ends on July 30.
McDonald confirmed the sick leave end date yesterday.
McDonald fell ill with pneumonia two weeks ago and was warded at St Clair Medical Centre. She was discharged after about five days—including after having fluid removed from her lungs and being nebulised—and has been recuperating at home since.
She made an appearance in PNM’s by-election motorcade on the weekend after, but didn’t move and circulate around much. She said she’s still on a course of antibiotics, watching for possible Sahara dust in the environment under her personal doctor’s care.
On claims of other issues:
“I have nothing to say on any report of any renal ‘failure’,” she added, “I am coming along.”
She said she’s trying to return to light duties and visited her St James constituency office last Friday to prepare for an upcoming event. She’d originally planned hosting a school bag distribution drive for students in her Port-of- Spain constituency and wants to keep that promise, she added.
Minister in the Ministry of Finance Allyson West has been acting in the Public Administration Ministry since McDonald’s illness.
McDonald may be coming back to work around the same time her predecessor Maxie Cuffie is expected to return to T&T after his medical treatment in the US.
Cuffie is now a minister in that ministry after suffering a stroke last September, having surgery locally, rehabilitation in the US since last November and neurosurgery there in June. Doctors subsequently gave him approval to travel back home.
On approved leave from Parliament up to this month, PNM officials said they expect Cuffie will be back in Parliament when sittings resume in early September.