There were 82 new positive cases of COVID-19 recorded on Monday, February, 8, 2021 which include results from January 29 to 31.
Situations like this may occur occasionally as the Best-dos Santos Public Health Laboratory continues to try to clear the backlog created due to the use of manual extraction in the processing of samples.
The Ministry of Health and Wellness is taking measures to have this issue rectified in the short term with the automated extractor reagent expected to arrive within a week.
The Laboratory conducted 545 tests yesterday and 43 people recovered and were discharged from isolation. This brings the number of active cases in Barbados to 324.
Two more people were added to the list of those who died from the viral illness – a 53 year-old woman and a 67-year-old man. Both of them suffered from chronic non-communicable diseases. The COVID-19 death toll now stands at 20.
The 82 positive cases comprise 45 women and 37 men. Nine of them were already at the Harrison Point Isolation Facility undergoing assessment to determine whether their positive PCR test result showed they were newly positive or had COVID-19 in the past and were no longer infectious.
The 73 other cases include 69 Barbadians and three non-nationals.
The number of people diagnosed as positive at Her Majesty’s Prisons Dodds increased to 363 with the addition of one male inmate, but only four inmates are in isolation as the majority have recovered.
To date, Barbados recorded 1 814 confirmed cases – 763 females, 1 051 males – and 1 470 people recovered.
The public health laboratory completed 108 831 tests since February 2020. (BGIS)
