Five administrative employees of the National Assistance Board (NAB) have tested positive for COVID-19.
This was revealed by Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs, Cynthia Forde during a press conference today where she made it clear that none of the home helpers came into close contact with any of the administrative staff members who tested positive.
She also noted that no senior citizen has been impacted in any adverse manner by the development.
She explained that the first member of staff who contracted the virus from a close relative who came from overseas and tested positive several weeks ago, is not a part of the field division but works exclusively at NAB’s Country Road, St Michael headquarters.
“During the incubation for that first patient, the relative who happens to work at the National Assistance Board headquarters, was completely asymptomatic and continued to work as usual. However, officers at the Ministry of Health and Wellness took the precautionary step to take that staffer into quarantine, tested her for the virus, and discovered sadly that she has been infected,” she said.
Forde said following the first NAB cases being detected, contact tracing commenced immediately targeting her colleagues and persons she came into contact with. The Minister said the decision was eventually made to quarantine and tests all staff at the NAB’s headquarters.
“To date, 40 employees have been tested and while the vast majority have been declared negative, only today, another two members of staff tested positive bringing to five the total number of National Assistance Board staff that have so far tested positive for the coronavirus. Another 107 members of staff, including home helpers will be tested today,” she said.
She said arrangements have also been made for all NAB staff to be quarantined in local hotels at Government’s expense.
Forde reported that none of the employees who tested positive is in a serious condition and therefore have not had to be placed in acute care at any of the isolation centres.
Forde said the development, which took place over the past week, has left management and workers of NAB’s team traumatized. As a result, Forde said Acting Prime Minister Santia Bradshaw has arranged for a series of meetings to be held with NAB’s staff to assure them of Government’s support and commitment to assisting them in the days and weeks ahead.
“We are concerned too about their families, and we have already employed psychologists and other counseling professionals to engage with them and to walk with them through this traumatic experience.
“Our seniors will be well cared for. My Ministry has already formulated a contingency plan to ensure that none of our services to our clients are compromised.
“Home interventions by crisis staff and other senior personnel had been suspended since early March. We do not anticipate therefore, to discover any significant degree of interface between administrative staff and home helpers in the weeks leading up to this latest development. However, we are testing everybody at this stage,” Forde said.
As of today, 79 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Barbados.
Bradshaw said the positive cases at NAB created a worrisome scenario for authorities.
Meanwhile, Minister of Health and Wellness Lt Col Jeffrey Bostic said though the development was being treated seriously, it was not a situation that overwhelmed authorities.
Bostic, once again, gave the assurance that authorities have the capacity to contain what appears to be a troubling situation.
“We intend to stay on top of it; we will dedicate a lot of our personnel and our resources to this effort to be able to deal with it so that we can bring the situation under effective management and control.
“So once again an appeal goes out to those persons in Barbados who think that they may be displaying symptoms as expressed recently by the Ministry of Health and Wellness in the enlarged portfolio of persons who would qualify for testing,” Bostic said.
Bostic said there is no evidence of community spread in Barbados. (AH)
