Credit Union employee COVID positive

Less than 24 hours after the Barbados Public Workers’ Co-operative Credit Union Ltd. (BPWCCUL) took the bold step to facilitate COVID-19 testing of all its employees, it has uncovered at least one positive case of the infectious viral illness.

Yesterday, Barbados TODAY broke the news that BPWCCUL, the island’s largest credit union with over 95 000 members, had taken the unprecedented step of seeking to test all its employees as a precautionary measure.

The testing, which was conducted by a private medical facility at the Belmont Road, St Michael headquarters and the Emerald City, St Philip branch on Monday and Tuesday, revealed one COVID-19 positive employee and suspicions of possibly more.

In a statement issued this evening, BPWCCUL said: “On Tuesday, January 5, 2021 it was confirmed that one of our employees from the Belmont Road branch has tested positive for COVID-19 and will be in isolation until recovery.”

The statement went on: “One of our employees at the Mile-And-A-Quarter branch and one other at the Belmont Roach branch have also been contacted by the Ministry of Health and Wellness as part of their contact tracing drive. They are currently in self-quarantine awaiting the results of their tests.”

In the face of the development, the management of BPWCCUL has taken the decision to close all the credit union’s branch operations for the rest of the week and re-open on January 11.

The development has come following what officials of the Ministry of Health and Wellness have described as a “super-spreader” event on Boxing Day, when a yet undisclosed number of people attended a night-time bus crawl, reportedly aboard at least five buses. The mobile party usually touches several shops and bars across the island.

That “super-spreader” bus crawl has been linked to almost 200 cases of COVID-19 discovered in a 48-hour period following the Christmas weekend. Government has since responded with a 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew, tightened restrictions on public gatherings, and reintroduced a ban on recreational and competitive sports, meetings, dances, fetes and similar entertainment events. Several businesses across the island have also temporarily shut their doors to have employees tested and quarantined and to undertake industrial cleaning of the properties.

The credit union’s management added: “Any staff member visiting either [Belmont or Emerald City] branch on or after December 27, would be deemed to have possibly been exposed, and as such, we would ask those persons to come forward for testing.

“Additionally, any staff who feels that they may otherwise have been exposed can also come forward for testing,” acting Group Chief Executive Officer LeVere Catlyn said in a memo to employees.
(IMC1)