COVID-19 emergency extended to August 31

The coronavirus Public Health Emergency was Wednesday extended until August 31 as lawmakers moved to give extra teeth to the Government’s response should the pandemic worsen.

The extension of the state of emergency would also allow the Government to maintain the presence of Cuban nurses and allow the Queen Elizabeth Hospital to work along with other facilities to manage the health crisis.

As he introduced the resolution to amend the emergency, Minister of Health Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Bostic said while Barbados had not recorded any local transmission of COVID-19 cases for about a month, the deadly virus was still a very real threat.

He told the House: “I want to make it clear,that yes we have not had a case in a month, but that should not be taken to mean that there is no longer a problem, there is no longer an international pandemic and we no longer have a public health emergency. And I say that because we are not operating in a silo and we do not live in a bubble.”

The Health Minister, who had earlier attended a Pan American Health Organisation executive meeting, told fellow makers there was much concern that the Americas was now deemed the epicentre of COVID.

North, Central and South America account for the approximately half of the nine million global cases of the coronavirus, but the hemisphere is also the hotspot for new cases.

Highlighting startling infection rates in countries including the United States where COVID-19 infections are estimated at 2.3 million, Brazil 1.2 million and Mexico with 185, 000, Lt Col Bostic said this was a matter of concern for the Caribbean given that CARICOM member states Guyana and Suriname share a border with Brazil.

The Health Minister said: “This situation continues not only globally but in the Americas, and when we consider the fact that although Europe is levelling off at the moment, but still the UK with 306,000 cases.

“Our [tourism] source markets… the Americas – Canada, and the United States – where we get our direct flights, we still have to be vigilant and that is why we are seeking to extend the public health emergency.