NADENE Parchment, daughter of renowned Jamaican opera singer Dr Curtis Watson, says her father is recuperating in the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) in St Andrew after battling the deadly novel coronavirus.

“Today, he has made some improvements. He’s off the breathing machine and is now using an oxygen mask, which is giving him a low-volume amount of oxygen. The medical staff is working to see whether or not he can be weaned from it… There’s some amount of damage to his lungs. He’s in a weakened state and not able to move around by himself yet, but coherent. And, for the first time in several weeks, I heard Daddy laughing; so we’re giving thanks,” she said yesterday.

“He’s no longer on Ward 7, the COVID ward… Things are going to get better… I do believe things are going to get better,” she continued.

Parchment, an education administrator in New York, disclosed that her father was admitted to the UHWI in mid-July. She also revealed that her younger brother, Dike (pronounced Dee-key) Watson, who was also on the same ward, died early this month. He was 28.

“Both were side by side on the same ward… so, while we’re happy with Dad’s improvement, we’re also mourning the loss of a brother,” said Parchment, who was in Jamaica in early July for the funeral of an uncle who succumbed to COVID-19 in New York.

She said the ordeal has taken a financial, psychological, physical, and mental toll on her. She, however, had a word of advice for Jamaicans reluctant to get vaccinated for the virus.

“I do understand the reservations and concerns surrounding the vaccine… but whatever you do, protect yourself from COVID-19. There is not enough human resource to manage this crisis and the doctors at Ward 7 are phenomenal, but this virus has a mission to kill, steal, and destroy. People have to protect themselves… Let’s not get caught up in the politics,” she added.

As of yesterday, the Ministry of Health reported that 1,300 people had died from COVID-19 in Jamaica, while 57,945 were confirmed positive.

Born in Kilmarnock district, St Elizabeth, Curtis Watson is an accomplished bass baritone singer.

In 1979, while studying at the Jamaica School of Music, he was awarded a joint Soviet-Jamaica Government scholarship to study opera and concert singing at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow. During his six-year stint there, he became the first foreign student to win a medal in the Glinka All Soviet Competition.

In 1994, Watson won first prize at the Mario del Monaco International Opera Competition in Germany and diplomas in the Belvedere International Opera, Glinka, and Byelorussian Ministry of Culture competitions.

He has sung roles in The Marriage of Figaro, Faust, La Tosca, Il Travatore, and Porgy and Bess among other operas and musicals, and has won acclaim across Europe, the former Soviet Union, North America, the Caribbean, and Japan as an opera and concert singer.

In September 2008 he suffered a stroke but was able to return to the concert scene one year later.

He is married to fellow opera singer Pauline Forrest-Watson.