There is no evidence to suggest that the recent upsurge in COVID-19-related deaths is related to any variant.
That is according to Chief Medical Officer, Dr Kenneth George, who pointed out that the majority of recent deaths were elderly persons with underlying medical conditions, the most at-risk group.
After registering just seven COVID-19 related deaths between March and December, 2020, there have been 13 additional deaths since the start of 2021, bringing the total to 20.
Two weeks ago, the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) indicated that of the ten samples sent to them from Barbados, three contained the UK variant, which is said to be more contagious and lethal.
In an interview with Barbados TODAY, Dr George revealed that CARPHA had been unable to investigate any other samples because of problems with its machinery.
This he said meant health authorities were unable to determine if any more variants were on the island.
“Since then, CARPHA has indicated that they are unable to do further testing for us. They have some laboratory issues…so we don’t have the immediate opportunity to send further samples,” he said.
While he admitted the UK variant was making infected persons sicker, he said those were mainly persons suffering with NCDs.
Dr George acknowledged that while younger persons with no comorbidity conditions had also died from the respiratory virus in Barbados, he said this could not be linked directly to a variant as COVID-19 was responsible for the deaths of thousands of young people and children worldwide.
“But assuming the variant is here and it is here, we have had more issues of sicker patients coming to hospital. Sicker patients are persons who have diabetes, hypertension, chronic respiratory disease and obesity. So it is a little incorrect to say that persons are dying who don’t have comorbid conditions. To the best of my knowledge they are all elderly and have comorbid conditions.
“We will always get the case that doesn’t have underlying issues. COVID is a deadly disease and it comes with mortality. Many people who die, die because of issues with respiratory failure and issues of blood clots. The treatment is all available in Barbados. As you know we have Dexamethasone, we have the Remdesivir, which is currently being used in the United States and United Kingdom, and we give all of our patients the best shot,” Dr George maintained.
“As I said the majority of patients in the last grouping were over the age of 70…Of course, you are going to get younger people who are going to die from COVID but we hope that will be at a minimum. Young people can die of COVID, it’s not unheard of and children can die of COVID, it is not unheard of. We will continue to manage the situation and make sure that persons 55 years and younger are taken care of.”
Dr George said he was confident that with the rollout of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccination this week, Barbadians of all ages would be better protected.
“Having no vaccine is certainly worse than not having a vaccine at all. We have indicated that Barbados as a small island state is trying to bid with the larger countries which are hoarding. Whatever vaccines have been approved we are using.
“Yes it has been reported that South Africa is no longer using the AstraZeneca vaccine, but we are confident that based on the information and what we know we don’t think we have the South Africa variant here and we intend to pursue our vaccination strategy because the only vaccination we have available to our nation at the moment is the AstraZeneca,” Dr George said. (randybennett@barbadostoday.bb)
