Nine ‘on oxygen care at COVID-19 hospital’

Nine people are seriously ill with COVID-19 and on oxygen support with one of them said to be severely sick while in isolation at the Harrison’s Point hospital, the Government’s infection control chief said Monday.

Of the nine, seven are Barbadians and two are British nationals, said Dr Corey Forde, the manager of the isolation facility who heads the Infection Prevention and Control/ Infectious Diseases Programme at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, during Monday’s COVID-19 update from Ilaro Court.

Dr Forde revealed that within the primary isolation area, there were six males and eight females currently under watch, with one being classified as being severely ill.

He explained: “We did have some admissions and some discharges, to be specific, we currently have six males and eight females within the facility area. We have nine persons categorized as currently on oxygen so that means they need some sort of support in terms of getting oxygen into the lungs.

“One of these patients is classified for us as severe; this is one of the patients that I mentioned to you in the previous news briefing who had improved, but there was a little bit of decline in his improvement.

“We believe that there may be improvement back to a moderate state going into tomorrow.”

But he said was pleased to announce that there is no one in isolation at HMP Dodds requiring oxygen support, where there has been a major outbreak among both prison guards and inmates.

Dr Forde said that there have been several challenges along the way but that he is proud of the efforts his teams have made at facilities across the island to streamline the healthcare being provided, having taken criticisms and suggestions from the public and elsewhere.

“For us, at the Harrison’s Point facility we continue to improve, he said. “As I said on previous calls, nothing is ever going to be perfect, but the one thing one needs to do is if there is any criticism, as opposed to running away and hiding your head within the sand, it’s important to looking at those criticisms to see if they are valid or not and also to make the relevant changes and improve things.” (SB)