COVID-19 strikes elderly care facility

Health authorities are battling a worrying outbreak of COVID-19 cases at an elderly care facility in St John.

Chief Medical Officer of Health (CMO) Dr Kenneth George revealed today that so far more than a dozen elderly persons of the nursing home have tested positive for the virus.

“There is a nursing home in St John that started out with a client and a staff member. We expanded our contact tracing and that increased to 13 clients and a couple more staff…and then we got some more positives today. I can’t tell you the total amount, but it’s an ongoing situation,” Dr George told Barbados TODAY this afternoon.

In an update this evening, the COVID-19 dashboard issued by the Ministry of Health and Wellness, said the cases at the home were now 22- 19 patients and three staff members.

Dr George added: “We are trying to manage that situation… for many logistical reasons. We have separated the patients who are positive from those who are negative and the nursing staff who are attending those patients who don’t have a positive test.”

The CMO said the current situation at the elderly care facility is problematic for health authorities.

“These are very difficult situations because nursing homes are the right place to have outbreaks. This is about the third [nursing home] we have had issues with and we will try to contain the situation, that is the most we can do,” Dr George declared.

He sought to assure Barbadians that health authorities will overcome the challenging state of affairs at the St John nursing home in the same way they did with the west coast cluster and the one at Her Majesty’s Prison Dodds in St Philip.

“We have managed to contain the situation at the prison and our intention is to contain this situation [at the elderly care home],” he added.

On the question of vaccines for the elderly, the Chief Medical Officer said that section of the population will start receiving their doses during the second round of the mass immunization campaign at a date to be announced.
(emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb)