PAHO: Eastern Caribbean countries overwhelmed by COVID pandemic

SOURCE: CMC- A senior official of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Wednesday said that the health systems in most of the islands in the Eastern Caribbean have “limited capacities” to respond to the community spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19).

“In most of the Eastern Caribbean countries we are observing the situation of community transmission with limited additional capacity to respond and the risk of health services becoming overwhelmed in the context of the predominant Delta variant circulation,”  Dr. Sylvain Aldighieri, PAHO’s deputy director  told the weekly PAHO news conference.

He repeated a statement issued by the Barbados-based PAHO office in the Caribbean that indicated that nearly 8,000 confirmed new coronavirus cases had been reported over the last three weeks of September, a 52 per cent increase over the 4, 231 cases last month recorded in Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Kitts-Nevis and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

He said that the increase of cases is largely noted in persons who are unvaccinated and that the new reported cases also showed a proportion of the cases, 15-25 per cent to be children under the age of 18 years old driven by highly transmissible Delta Variant of Concern.

PAHO said in the last seven days, the increase in number of cases is led by St. Vincent and the Grenadines (231.8 per cent, representing 282 new cases), followed by St. Lucia (36.2 per cent or 872 news cases) and Antigua and Barbuda (74.2 per cent).

“In this context , a larger combination of measures needs to be put in place to limit the transmission, manage the cases and ensure the control of the epidemic,” Dr. Aldighieri, told the virtual news conference.

He said the particular focus should be on prevention and early detection of “early of potential super spreading events,” adding “I would like to stress the recommendations of the Pan American Health Organization that individuals are encouraged to accept COVID-19 vaccinations when offered”.

He said individuals should also “quickly practice the preventive measures.

“I would like to assure the countries and our partners in the Caribbean that the Pan American Health Organization continues to provide test kits and laboratory supplies, oxygen concentrators, in addition to the deployment of emergency medical teams that have been deployed at the moment to assist a Earlier this week, PAHO warned regional countries that the presence of variant of concern (VOC) is to be considered with the high transmission and that one of the reasons for why variants might emerge are the ‘selection pressures’ brought about by widespread transmission of the virus.

PAHO said that the importance of limiting transmission to reduce the risk of the emergence of variants of concerns cannot be overstated.

“Variants of concern are known to spread more easily, cause more severe disease, escape the body’s immune response, change clinical presentation, or decrease effectiveness of known tools – public health measures, diagnostics, treatments, and vaccines.”