BRA workers test negative

The 15 workers employed at the Holetown, St James branch of the Barbados Revenue Authority (BRA) have been given a clean bill of health after being tested for the COVID-19 virus.

Yesterday, the office was forced to close its doors early to facilitate contact tracing and testing of staff in relation to the possible exposure to a positive COVID-19 case.

“Fifteen members of staff associated with this location were tested. All of the test results returned were negative for the virus,” BRA said in a statement today.

Additionally, the Holetown office was sanitised as part of the Authority’s incident response procedures and will reopen on Friday.

The state-owned revenue collection agency thanked staff and members of the public for their cooperation in this matter as well as the Ministry of Health and Wellness for its continued vigilance in the midst of the pandemic.

The public has meanwhile been reminded to follow the health protocols when conducting business at the Authority.

The workers bargaining agent, the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW), has expressed displeasure with the way in which visitors in particular are being monitored while in quarantine

“I wish that people would be more careful. You can’t blame the staff for that, but I wish people would be more careful. I am not sure the circumstances under which the issue would have arisen, but people travelling or known to be travelling, need to be careful,” General Secretary of the NUPW Delcia Burke told Barbados TODAY.

Burke was particularly dissatisfied with health authorities’ approach to monitoring visitors who are quarantined.

“A lot of people are coming here who are supposed to be on quarantine and they are walking around because nobody is really checking behind them,” the union leader said. (EJ)