HEALTH OFFICIALS are “cautiously optimistic” that the outbreak of COVID-19 that more than doubled the country’s cases in ten days is under control.
Last night Senior Medical Officer Dr Anton Best said that the daily numbers for the positive cases had been fluctuating with an overall downward trend since December 31 when the first spike was revealed by authorities.
“We are optimistic that we have this massive outbreak under control, cautiously optimistic,” Best said in a televised press briefing.
Initially, authorities blamed the explosion in cases on a bus crawl, labelling it a super spreader event, but subsequent testing has turned up other cases not linked to the Boxing Day event organised by a prison officer. On December 30 there were 383 recorded cases but as of January 10 there are 884.
In his update, Best said so far 58 staff members – or 18 per cent of the workforce at Her Majesty’s Prisons Dodds – were positive for the virus, while 22 per cent, or about 176 of the 800 inmates, had it.
There are 42 cases in the community that are associated with the cluster at the prison. (AC)
