In a manner befitting the tumult, upheaval and pain that was 2020, Old Year’s Night was effectively cancelled after a spike in COVID-19 infections triggered new curfew restrictions and public health officials began rigorous testing and contact tracing to get to the root of the outbreak.
As thousands were making their final preparations for the festive weekend, details were emerging about 10 new cases, five of which were of nationals who were not linked to travellers.
“In other words, the five cases suggest that there is some local transmission,” declared Minister of Health and Wellness Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Bostic.
Chief Medical Officer Dr Kenneth George said that of the five infected people between the ages of 18 and 43, three displayed minor symptoms of COVID-19.
But alarms are now being raised at Her Majesty’s Prison Dodds where two prison guards tested positive for the coronavirus. This means that all inmates, officers and community workers at the St. Phillip penal facility must now be tested over the next five days.
To curb a potentially devastating situation, Prime Minister Mia Mottley then announced that 2021 in Barbados would begin with a midnight to 5 a.m. curfew, that continues daily for the next 14 days.
Next week would also begin with two public holidays on Monday and Tuesday as authorities attempt to uncover more details about the 10 new cases.
The Ministry of Health is now tracing the contacts of five people: two men from Christ Church, ages 37 and 18; two St James men, ages 28 and 43 and a 43-year-old St Thomas woman.
Dr George said that three of the five have “minor symptoms that suggested that they were infected with COVID but as we indicated none of them have a travel history”. He said measures are in place to ensure that every individual associated with patients will be tested with each case.
In a sober message to the nation, Mottley declared that all gatherings, feting and frolicking are forbidden, and warned that breaches of the new regulations would be met with the full force of the COVID-19 Monitoring Unit that is currently being bolstered by the Royal Barbados Police Force (RBPF) and the Barbados Defence Force (BDF).
She said: “For the cases that Dr George and Minister Bostic spoke about, we do not yet know how these persons contracted the virus and to that extent, therefore, the time has come for the country to go on pause for a little bit until we can get all of the facts that we need to go. We are not yet at the panic stage, but we are at the stage of firm decisions and firm actions being taken.
“The Police Force is with me, the [Army] Chief of Staff is with me, and they have very strict instructions not to deal with any foolishness with people gathering, because… the Government is insisting that people comply with the protocols.”
Acknowledging the likely losses for New Year’s Eve event promoters, the PM promised to reimburse the 65 promoters who had received prior permission to host events for the loss of perishable goods and the use of equipment to set up their events.
Churches that usually end well after the turn of the year were ordered to close their doors by 11 p.m., and restaurants were instructed to follow suit.
The developments have also led to a two-week postponement of face-to-face classes at primary and secondary institutions that were supposed to open their doors on Tuesday.
Moving her attention to the unfolding situation at HMP Dodds, the Prime Minister endorsed the order for all officers to be tested once in the next 48-hours and again five days later.
Lt. Col. Bostic disclosed that the Ministry of Health has begun working with prison authorities to launch a “massive campaign at the prison intended to test every single person who works at the prison over the next 48 hours.
“And that is inclusive of prisoners, prison wardens and also civilian staff and that is going to be going on for the next 48 hours as I said and we will continue to throw as many of our resources as we need to in terms of other cases.
“We intend to bring this matter to clarity once we have all the facts available.”
The CMO then promised that the authorities would move with the same alacrity that was applied to similar outbreaks at the National Assistance Board (NAB) and the Ellerslie Secondary School.
Said Dr George: “I would like the public to know that contact tracing started immediately and we have put measures in place to ensure that every individual associated with this case will be tested. We have done this before at the National Assistance Board (NAB), we have done this before at the Ellerslie School and the outbreak in a church.
“We do have the resources to make this happen and I ask the public to bear with us during this time and cooperate with public health officials to make this process seamless.”
The island’s beaches will not be closed at this stage, but the Prime Minister warned that she was not afraid to clamp down if forced to. Drone technology is to be made available to the Royal Barbados Police Force and the Coast Guard to “keep adequate watch”.
Mottley said: “What we do not want is people on the beaches gathering in the manner that they did on Boxing Day, which was completely unacceptable and for which I have asked the COVID Monitoring Unit to let me know how it happened and what actions they were going to take about it.”
The Prime Minister insisted that gatherings are forbidden and asked people to stay at home in their bubbles and to sanitise and wear masks. She made a special plea to parents to talk to their children about the COVID-19 pandemic.
She assured the country was ready for any eventuality, pointing out that despite the impact of COVID-19 on the economy, Barbados’ reserves stand at $2.6 billion. This was bolstered by the receipt of $200 million from the Latin American Bank, also known as CAF.
Mottley said: “Our reserves, as we stand today, literally are at 2.656 billion… which is roughly about 35 weeks of import cover. This country has never had it with that level of reserves. So we are ready for all eventualities including those measures that are necessary to trigger growth and to get jobs going in 2021 among our people again.”
(kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb)
