COVID-19 family in stable condition – Dr Forde

The head of the Harrison Point Isolation Facility is reporting that members of the family cluster receiving treatment for COVID-19 at the St Lucy-based institution are in stable condition.

Dr Corey Forde told the media this morning that one of them has already recovered from the highly contagious virus.

On October 4, health authorities informed the nation that a housekeeper contacted COVID-19 while working at a villa. Subsequently, some of her family members, including two students of Ellerslie Secondary School, also tested positive, leading to Minister of Education Santia Bradshaw announcing that same day that the Black Rock, St Michael institution would be closed for two weeks to allow for further contact tracing.

“Patients at the facility are all currently stable. As of this morning, we have one that was discharged. The family cluster of interest remains all stable at this point. All are well,” Dr Forde said.

He gave an update on the patients’ status, following a handover of recreational and educational equipment, including tablets, for the paediatric patients at the facility.

The donations were made through a collaborative effort by Spring Homes Limited, Steinbok Management Services, TMR Sales and Service Limited, BCQS International, and Connoisseur Improvement Services.

Dr Forde indicated that in light of the fact that people sometimes stay as long as 14 days at the centre, the management team is in the process of adding an activities coordinator to help keep patients occupied.

“These will go a long way as we now introduce an activities coordinator for the facility who will try to work with all these different entities to help improve patient care,” he said as the tablets were handed over.

During the presentation ceremony at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) boardroom, Dr Forde said the donation would assist with patient improvement and providing hospitality type services at the facility. The devices will also help with the psychological care of patients, the doctor said.

“We are extremely grateful to the donors, and all those to come, for providing these donations. Just providing a tablet to help a child with their education is strategically important, and I thank you for that. Providing colouring books, toys, these are strategically important for patients at the facility who sometimes stay up to 14 days. So it keeps that recreational part in place, and it also plays that important part in maintaining the mental stability of the patients at the facility,” Dr Forde added.

Joseph Steinbok said all the donors involved had participated in the Harrison Point Redevelopment Project and were willing and ready to make the contributions.

“I know that things are tough in the island; they are tough for all of us, all of our companies are feeling the downturn. But by the same token, we realise this is when the country needs us more than ever and we are prepared to play our part. So, it is with great pleasure that we present these tablets so that kids at Harrison’s Point will be able to continue their schoolwork and those that are not in school would have some way of passing time.

“There are lots of games and activities that kids can play to keep themselves busy, and I suspect that the adults will be playing some of the other games, like the Scrabble, to keep themselves busy as well. So we hope that this makes life for the patients a little easier and hopefully by doing that it will make life for the caregivers a little easier as well,” Steinbok said.
(AH)