Virus beaten back at QEH, Psychiatric Hospital – Minister

The outbreaks of COVID-19 at both the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) and the Psychiatric Hospital are under control, Minister of Health and Wellness Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Bostic declared Monday.

He said the two clusters are being handled appropriately and that he was hopeful they would soon end.

Last Friday, it was revealed that 15 of the 17 new COVID-19 cases involved patients and staff from the mental health institution and three other people tested positive Monday.

A 42-year-old male patient who was recently discharged from the hospital after a three-month stay is suspected to be the source of the infections.

Director of the Psychiatric Hospital David Leacock revealed that all 82 clients and 25 staff members on the affected ward had been tested.

He said staff members were currently in Government quarantine facilities awaiting their second tests. He said that was to be completed Tuesday while testing had also been done on other wards.

Leacock said: “We have also tested all of the clients on four other wards with the exception of one client who declined to be tested. That one client who has declined will be maintained in quarantine as such time as 14 days have passed that we can be sure she is no longer infected. All other persons that I mentioned have been tested and have all returned negative tests at this time.”

He said the outbreak had not affected the hospital’s day-to-day operations as the outpatient clinic remained open and other services were still being provided.

The Psychiatric Hospital’s Senior Consultant Physician Dr Brian Maclachlan said 24 out of 29 outpatients recently discharged from the hospital had been contacted but the authorities are still trying to locate the other five patients to have them tested.

An isolation centre has been established on the hospital’s compound, the health minister said,

Lt Col Bostic disclosed: “The situation at the Psychiatric Hospital internally is under some measure of control and I say some measure because we still have to await the second tests but from the first tests we are satisfied that we have been able to do a level of containment that is necessary and what we are working on right now especially, is to be able to complete that process within the Psychiatric Hospital and also tighten up the loose ends in relation to outpatients who we are contacting and trying to trace to make sure we can wrestle this problem to the ground.”

In giving an update on the QEH, which had been the source of an outbreak last month, he said no further positive cases had been recorded.

The health minister said: “The situation really is a result of some positives amongst members of the QEH security staff, both private as well as public. What we have seen is that a number of those persons have been able to return to work having tested negative on their second test.

“They’ve been no further positives coming out of that particular situation and we believe that as soon as we are able to complete all of the second tests for everyone associated with that if it continues on its current trajectory we will be in a position to close off that case, but at the moment things are looking good.” (randybennett@barbadostoday.bb)