Health authorities are trying to find three prison officers who are wanted for testing in connection with the “super spreader event” that has seen at least 45 positive cases of COVID-19.
Last night Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley, chairman of the Cabinet COVID-19 Sub-Committee, Senator Jerome Walcott, and Minister of Home Affairs Wilfred Abrahams made public appeals for the employees of Her Majesty’s Prisons Dodds to present themselves at the Eunice Gibson Polyclinic in Warrens, St Michael, so they can be tested for the coronavirus.
The three were listed as Dave Best, Paul Outram and Nigel Hall, but no other details were released.
The call was made after Minister of Health Jeffrey Bostic said that contact tracing had resulted in 45 people being confirmed as having COVID-19 – 32 from Dodds and four from the Barbados Defence Force (BDF) – after taking part in a bus crawl on Boxing Day.
He said 17 of those from the prison service as well as the four BDF personnel had attended the “super spreader”.
Mottley said the authorities had been trying “all day” to reach the men, adding that their families/contacts would also need to be tested.
But she warned them, or others who were connected to them, not to travel by public transport if they could not get to the polyclinic on their own. Walcott later said they could call 536-4500 if they had difficulty getting to the location so they could be picked up.
She reminded the country that while it was not a time for panic, “it is a serious situation”. (BW)
