Minister of Health and Wellness Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Bostic today addressed the recent death of a nine-year-old girl as a result of complications related to COVID-19 and updated the nation on the COVID-19 situation.
Below is the full text of his address:
Statement By Lt Col Hon Jeffrey Bostic, Minister of Health and Wellness
Good morning,
I speak to you today, against the backdrop of a few recent tragic and unsettling developments in our going battle to contain, manage and significantly reduce incidents of Covid-19 infections in our country.
First, i would wish to add my voice to the national outpouring of shock and sadness, following the untimely passing of a nine year old child, due to complications associated with the Covid-19 virus. As usual the purveyors of mischief and misinformation asot it wrong in terms of the handling of this particular case by medical personnel. Dr. Clyde Cave is in attendance and will go into further detail on that particular matter, immediately after my opening remarks.
Suffice to say that this matter was very traumatic for all medical and other personnel involved and we continue to hold the family, friends and school fraternity of this child in our prayers.
The QEH fought hard to save this precious Barbadian child, but she passed from this life on Valentine’s Day. The little girl, to whom I will refer as “Child A”, is the first child to die in Barbados from a new, uncommon, but serious, medical condition, now known globally as Multisymptom Inflammatory Syndrome In Children or, MIS-C. This condition is brought on by Covid-19.
Every day, scientists are gaining new knowledge about Covid-19 and its sequelae. The MIS-C syndrome has been described in literature published by the Mayo Clinic as “an excessive immune response related to COVID-19” and is seen in children who had COVID, but who have recovered from it.
Given Child A’s symptoms and the management of her case, medical personnel wanted to review all their findings, before full confirmation of her cause of death could be shared with the public. Today’s notification is therefore consistent with the Ministry’s practice of counting and publishing every Covid-related death in Barbados.
It is also my very sad duty to inform you that three of our senior citizens, two Barbadian ladies, one 88[1] years old and the other 74[2], and a gentleman 73[3] years old, died from Covid-19 yesterday. We extend sincere condolences to their grieving relatives and friends.
May They Rest In Peace.
Having shared these painful facts, it is, therefore, important to update you on the situation with Covid-19 in Barbados.
On February 14, some 534 tests were performed, yielding 63 positive cases. The reagent, on which the Best Dos Santos Laboratory was waiting to expedite the processing of swabs, finally arrived. By Monday 15th, the Lab was able to process and give results from 1251 tests. Of the tests done, 89 positive results were obtained from swabs taken between February 4 and 14 and 37 from February 15’s; making for a total of 126 positive tests, 68 men and 58 women.
The Best Dos Santos Lab has now conducted a total of 115,813 tests. Barbados has had 2,457 total cases of Covid-19, comprising 1,367 men and 1,090 women. Some 28 people have died. There have been 1,698 recoveries, while 731 active cases remain.
You will recall that when Barbados met the international criteria for being described as having community spread, the ministry cautioned that transmission of the viral illness within homes and families was a very real risk. This became increasingly evident in the spate of recent cases and deaths involving seniors who were not active socially. It stresses the need for a sense of personal responsibility, maintenance of safety protocols even among members of the same household and for people to remain indoors.
The Ministry also warned that people of all age groups can become infected with COVID. Indeed, the recent deaths of middle aged persons and now this child, would be testimony of the threat the viral illness poses to younger people. You may wish to be aware, that as of yesterday, there were 40 minors in the island’s isolation facilities, 17 female and 23 males. So the young people who feel they should not stay home or wear masks, and that they can keep socialising, are playing Russian Roulette with their lives and ours.
What are our next steps?
▪ Bringing lab results up to date so the Ministry of Health can get an accurate assessment of positivity rates and the pervasiveness of the disease in Barbados. These assessments will guide any further advice the Ministry gives to the Prime Minister, the Cabinet and the country.
▪ Ensuring enforcement during lockdown to restrict movement, as we know this will help to curtail further spread. The Monitoring Unit has caught many people breaching the curfew and these will be prosecuted.
And on this matter of restricting movement, I am not satisfied with still relatively high volume of traffic on our roads. Many persons in this country still appear to be leaving home for the sake of leaving home. This is a major part of our problem. I have therefore made a recommendation to the Hon. Prime Minister and to the EOC that we need to do a little more to significantly reduce the number of persons on the roads of Barbados, this coming weekend in particular. Accordingly, the Hon. Attorney General will very shortly be issuing a new directive in which we shall impose a weekend curfew; whereby effective Friday 7pm to Monday 6am, it shall be unlawful for persons not in possession of the appropriate pass or not involved in the vaccination exercise, either as a service provider or recipient of the vaccine, to leave the confines of their homes. Simply put, if you are not an essential worker; going to work or coming from work; if you do not have a government authorized pass or if you are not directly involved in Operation Seek and Save or the National Vaccination Exercise and if you are not heading to or coming from a medical facility on legitimate business, then you shall have absolutely no permission to be on the roads of Barbados from Friday 7pm to Monday 6am. This ban shall also apply to beaches and public parks. This is a stay at home weekend, when the Royal Barbados Police Force shall be instructed to apprehend and prosecute all persons violating this order.
▪ Ensuring the effectiveness of Operation Seek and Save as a tool for getting sick persons out of households and communities and into places where they can be cared for and the risk to others reduced. I can only continue to plead with all of you that if you or a member of your household is feeling sick, go for medical help right away.
▪ Being aggressive and thorough in our contact tracing. We ask the public to help each other and us, by telling us the truth. Your business remains confidential and your business. The Ministry of Health is only interested in public health interventions not telling people how to live.
▪ Reinforcing that the first line of defence for every individual is the wearing of masks, the washing of hands, and keeping physical distance.
▪ Pursuing a national vaccination programme to prioritise and protect our frontline workers, persons with NCDs and seniors. I am pleased to report, that having started to test our systems last Wednesday with the vaccination of 30 people, and increasing our numbers daily, as at yesterday evening, February 16, Barbados had vaccinated 6665 persons. That is nearly 1000 people a day. Yesterday’s daily dashboard showed the vaccination numbers for the first time and will hereafter reflect the daily vaccination numbers.
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