Govt allays fears over porous protocols claim

Government has told doctors that Barbadians will remain protected, after the medical fraternity voiced concerns that new COVID-19 protocols now in effect will leave too much room for the virus to get into the wider population.

In a release today from the Ministry of Health and Wellness, Government said its record of 25, 000 PCR COVID-19 tests, 190 confirmed infections and seven deaths since the disease surfaced in Barbados last March, was testimony to the Ministry’s “commitment to best practice as identified by the World Health Organisation and the Pan American Health Organisation”.

The local medical fraternity has insisted that the new COVID-19 protocol could allow up to up to 13 per cent of possible COIVD-19 positive travellers from medium and high risk countries to slip through the system and expose Barbadians to the disease.

The Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners (BAMP) said the amended protocols that target persons from Medium and High Risk countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and several South American and European counties, would likely result in them spending only one or just two days in quarantine after arrival in Barbados with a negative PCR COVID-19 test result while they undergo a second test.

“The current protocol states that travellers from high risk countries will be allowed to leave quarantine on the basis of a negative test done 4-5 days after the last negative test result accepted by the Ministry of Health and Wellness.

“This would imply that a high risk person who tested 72 hours before travel, who presents an acceptable negative test result on arrival, would be able to be tested again and leave quarantine in as little as one to two  days after arrival in Barbados.

“Based on a review of the available evidence, including possibility of false negative testing, such an approach will fail to detect and quarantine at [least] 9 – 33 per cent of travellers who contract COVID-19 between their initial test and arrival in Barbados,” local doctors charged.

However, the Ministry of Health responded: “The new protocol requesting a repeat test four to five days after the first test is based on the current evidence published by WHO. We are convinced that even in these uncertain times that the public health of Barbadians will remain protected.

“The mandatory pre-testing was instituted as a good public health measure to ensure that while on a commercial airline there would be a reduction in risk of transmission of the COVID-19 virus from passenger to passenger. This will be subject to continuous review.”

Furthermore, the Health Ministry told local doctors it was taking the “guidance of these agencies with global and hemispheric discipline in public health, which is a dedicated and specific area in the practice of medicine”.

BAMP had also expressed concern about the human and other financial resources needed to support second tests for a high volume of travellers coming into the island and suggested that Government charged a minimum of US$150 at Government-run facilities.

In this connection, the Ministry of Health said it would step up the deployment of additional resources at the Grantley Adams International Airport.

It noted: “The Ministry of Health and Wellness continues to ensure that there are appropriate human and financial resources deployed in the COVID-19 efforts.

“We have deployed the Cuban nurses and Community Liaison Officers in swabbing, inspecting properties and contact tracing. . . .

“The Ministry is working closely with private sector agencies to expand the availability of PCR COVID testing in the private sector for those willing to pay for such a service.”

Doctors here also want all persons who arrive with negative results from a test done 72 hours earlier to undergo an interview with Ministry of Health personnel to find out if they engaged in any activity that might have put them at risk prior to arriving in the island after taking the COVID-19 test in the country from which they departed.

More important, BAMP wants only the Chief Medical Officer to approve whether the initial negative test should be accepted.

The concerned doctors are also calling for all travellers from high risk countries to “quarantine on arrival and remain in quarantine until and after the second test result is known and is negative. Failure to remain in quarantine until instructed to leave should be considered an offence”.

The doctors also want all second COVID-19 tests to be at the travellers’ expense and not funded by Barbadian taxpayers. (IMC1)