BASSETERRE – St Kitts-Nevis, the only Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country not to have recorded a case of the coronavirus in recent days, Wednesday announced two cases as a result of the patients having recently travelled to the United States and urged nationals not to panic or be fearful.
Health Minister, Wendy Phipps, said the cases were confirmed late on Tuesday night and that the patients, a 57 year-old female and 21 year- male, both had a recent travel history to the US.
She said both persons are nationals of the twin island Federation who returned here on March 18 and tested two days later.
They have been in quarantine since their arrival, Phipps said, adding that among the measures now underway is in-depth contact tracing.
“We wish to remind the public that the infection of both patients is travel related, meaning that the cases of COVID-19 were imported into the country. Every effort is now being taken to prevent the possibility of community or local transmission,” the Health Minister said.
She said that among the key measures now being taken include in-depth contact tracing “in an effort to correctly assess the persons with whom both patients would have interacted” as well as quarantine and monitoring of the contacts of the patients in order to ensure they are handled in keeping with World Health Organisation (WHO) approved protocols.
She said based on data collected from contact tracing “containment of the infection would be executed in order to restrict spread of the infection in the local community”. (CMC)
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