There is no community spread of COVID-19 in Barbados at this point in time, says Minister of Health and Wellness Jeffrey Bostic, but officials are investigating five of ten new cases which are of concern.
Bostic made the announcement earlier Thursday during an unexpected national address from Ilaro Court which also featured Prime Minister Mia Mottley and Minster of Foreign Affairs, Senator Jerome Walcott.
“These cases are of concern to us because these are cases that we cannot link at this time to persons who had travelled recently,” Bostic said.
“In other words, the five cases suggest there is some local transmission; I repeat, local transmission. There is no community spread in Barbados at this point in time.”
The Health Minister said of those five cases, two are prison officers and a major testing campaign will be undertaken at Her Majesty’s Prison Dodds. This will include all prisoners, prison officers and civilian staff, who will be retested in five days. All of the Ministry’s resources will be put in place to conduct contact tracing for the other three.
Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Kenneth George said the five cases of concern are two males 37- and 18-years-old, respectively from Christ Church, a 28-year-old male from St James, a 43-year-old female from St Thomas and a 43-year-old man from St James.
George said contact tracing started already, and measures are being put in place to test all of the individuals associated with each case.
“We have done this before at the National Assistances Board. We have done this before at The Ellerslie School and the outbreak in a church,” George reminded the public as he asked them to “bear with us” during the contact tracing exercise by public health officials. (SAT)
