Teachers, parents worried about COVID-19 cluster

by Kareem Smith

Teachers and parents at yet another primary school are up in arms that possible links between their institution and the current cluster of COVID-19 cases are not being addressed by the principal and/or the Ministry of Education.

On Wednesday, the Ministry of Health revealed that three new cases of the contagious virus had been detected since the last update on Monday. Of the over 500 tests conducted, none was linked to the recent cluster.

The three new diagnoses bring the total number of active cases to 14. It is still unclear whether other persons tested through contact tracing will be retested.
Nevertheless, teachers at a primary school in St Thomas have complained that a nine-year-old boy who was attending classes up until last Friday, is the brother
of a 12-year-old student of The Ellerslie School who contracted the virus.

Numerous parents have reportedly been contacting teachers at the school to find out whether it was safe for their children to attend. One staff member indicated that the issue has been a hot topic of discussion among a staff member group chat that includes the school’s principal. The source, however, expressed disappointment in the principal’s reluctance to address it.

The class at the centre of the controversy has reportedly been half empty as parents worry about the wellbeing of their children. Others are said to have already visited the Eunice Gibson Polyclinic for testing and are awaiting results.

“We are not getting any feedback from [the principal], and it doesn’t appear that anything is being done about it. [The principal] needs to push for both the Ministries of Education and Health to do something about this school,” the staff member demanded.

The concerns were raised after news surfaced that two relatives – a 15-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy – who are both students of The Ellerslie School which has been ordered closed for a two-week period, had contracted COVID-19. Those two cases are part of a cluster linked to a housekeeper and her five relatives, including the two students and a four-month-old.

Community sources have indicated that some of the housekeeper’s relatives who subsequently tested positive for the virus do not reside at the same place as the woman, and that the 12-year-old positive patient and his nine-year old brother were seen playing in the community as recently as Sunday before the latter was diagnosed.

When contacted, Chief Education Officer Joy Adamson indicated that the Ministry of Health had expressed no concerns about that particular primary school, adding that the Ministry of Education would only be taking decisions on the advice of health officials.

Efforts to reach both Minister of Health Jeffrey Bostic and Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Kenneth George were unsuccessful. Meantime, officials at the primary school informed Barbados TODAY that the principal was busy.

Similar concerns about the safety of students were previously raised among students “at the St Stephen’s Primary School, as approximately 20 to 30 pupils there have relatives attending The Ellerslie School.

Earlier this week, principal Dr Colin Cumberbatch asked that relatives of Ellerslie students attending St Stephens stay home from school, but he subsequently retracted
his request.

Since then, Dr George, through a Government Information Service (GIS) statement, advised residents to remain calm.

He discouraged “unilateral decisions” being taken by some institutions in response to the ongoing cluster and further assured that the Ministry would contact and test all persons deemed to be at an increased risk.

“[Apart from Ellerslie] we have seen nothing so far that would warrant any other teaching institution taking action that keeps students from classes at this time. As CMO, I commit to immediately update the public if that situation changes,” he promised.

Only today, director of the COVID Monitoring Unit Ronald Chapman accused some Barbadians of “overreacting to news of cluster”. The director who was speaking to Starcom Network, described the behaviour as “mass hytsteria” and berated those who made “unilateral decisions to tell staff to stay home”.

kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb