Health officials to propose actions for country to ‘get on with life’

The Ministry of Health is preparing to make recommendations for further changes to the COVID-19 protocols, but the indoor mask mandate will not be one of them.

Although declining to disclose the details of the proposals the Ministry will make to Government, Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Kenneth George declared on Wednesday: “We are looking to get on with life.”    

“We are going to make recommendations for the next [COVID-19] directive. I am not letting you know what those recommendations are, but we are looking to get on with life and make sure the vulnerable and the elderly are protected,” the Government’s chief medical advisor told Barbados TODAY in light of a “slow” decline in COVID-19 positive cases in recent weeks, and with the existing directive expiring on June 25.

“The numbers with respect to COVID cases in communities across Barbados continue to trend downwards slowly. There is still community spread across several areas in Barbados. There is less involvement, certainly from where I sit, of the security forces; the situation at the prisons is controlled; there are no issues at the Psychiatric or Geriatric Hospitals or nursing homes,” Dr George added.   

However, he cautioned that while numbers are trending downward and the positivity rate is slowly declining, the transmission rate “still continues to be high”.

Against that background, the Chief Medical Officer indicated that the mask mandate would remain in place.

From May 25, the wearing of masks outdoors became optional, but mask-wearing indoors and on public transportation as well as on school premises remains mandatory.

“We are not at a situation where we can stop [the] mask mandate at this time. We will continue to review the evidence,” Dr George said as he reiterated earlier advice that residents take personal responsibility for their protection and that of their families.

He said a special effort must be made to protect the elderly and persons suffering from non-communicable diseases. One of the key ways to do that, the CMO said, is through vaccination and getting boosters.

In fact, the senior medical official served notice that booster shots will be the way to go, for the foreseeable future, in Barbados.

“We have indicated that Barbadians are being offered second boosters…. The virus is changing all the time to survive. Therefore, the evidence suggests that repetitive boosting will be required in the medium-term to long-term future,” he said.

Dr George said the Ministry will continue to be updated by the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) which allows it to make public health decisions related to changes in protocols and directives.

“But the days of having restrictions of movement, etcetera, are over. We know too much about the virus. The schools are open [and] although there have been a few sporadic cases of infection, to date there has been no transmission of COVID within the schools,” he said.

The CMO assured Barbadians that the island’s health officials were doing their job to continue to manage the pandemic and had contained several outbreaks at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Psychiatric Hospital.      

He suggested COVID-19 was like a “permanent threat” that would have to be handled accordingly.

“If you have a permanent threat, you just have to change your responses to reflect the times of a permanent threat, and you need to just be prepared for any eventuality when you are mixing with persons you do not know,” the Chief Medical Officer said, adding that masks should be worn in such circumstances and social distancing of three feet maintained.
emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb