Health minister reflects on campaign against coronavirus

Minister of Health Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Bostic has defended the decisions made in the interest of public health over the first 12 months of COVID-19 in Barbados.

And as the country battles a second wave of the deadly virus and braces for a possible third, the words ‘no retreat, no surrender’ have become emblematic of the mild-mannered but firm retired army officer who uttered them as he sought to rally a nation to wage war on an increasingly lethal virus.

On Wednesday, the country’s public health system observed the anniversary of the dreaded virus which has changed the course of history the moment it landed on these shores.

On a whistlestop tour of the Harrison Point Isolation Facility in St Lucy, the St Andrew Outpatient Clinic, the St Joseph Outpatient clinic, the military base at Paragon and the Best Dos Santos Public Health Laboratory, the minister reflected on the first of many “sleepless nights” that began early last February, when the Government started testing cruise ship passengers.

He recalled waiting with bated breath daily for a message from the lab informing him that all tests had come back negative. But that all changed on March 17th.

“On this particular night, there was no message and I got a call from the lab director herself at two or 3[o’clock] in the morning and I knew exactly what she was going to say to me. ‘Minister, we have our first case of COVID. Honestly, it felt strange even as we were reporting it the following morning, but after a while we became relieved that it had happened, knowing very well that it would become the norm,” Lt. Col. Bostic told reporters.

Since then, the country has recorded 3,471 cases, which are responsible for two major outbreaks that claimed 39 lives.

Stringent lockdowns, curfews, physical distancing and travel restrictions have all become synonymous with the virus as well.

The pandemic has also drawn on an extraordinary amount of human and financial resources that allowed healthcare officials including doctors, nurses and other supporting staff to move from a four-bed isolation facility at the Enmore complex to an expansive property at Harrison Point, St Lucy.

“These kinds of challenges brought out decision-making at its best. In the heat of battle, there was no retreat and no surrender and this country owes a debt of gratitude to all of these fine men and women who work in these facilities. And, on this the anniversary of the first positive case in Barbados, I just wanted to say thanks on behalf of the Cabinet of Barbados, the Ministry of Health and Wellness and the people of Barbados,” the health minister declared.

“Some of them have contracted COVID – thank God not many… and I think they epitomise my mantra of ‘no retreat, no surrender’ better than most people in this country, because irrespective of the challenges, they have always found solutions.

“Imagine a couple of weeks ago, they were dealing with seven and 800 positive cases and now we are down to about [147]. The level of care in our isolation facilities is second to none in this world, and I want to say thank you very much,” the lieutenant colonel repeated.

Head of Infection Control and Infectious Disease Dr Corey Forde praised staff at the main Harrison Point isolation facility for unswerving service – some from the start of the pandemic.

“I remember the first case,” Dr Forde recalled. “There was a level of anxiety among the staff at the first case and I would never forget that for the rest of my life, having that first call for the first patient and mobilizing the staff, but it wasn’t a massive difficulty at that time because we had a plan on the ground.”

But among the triumphs have been numerous challenges that many believe have ultimately ushered in a new wave of COVID-19.

More than six months after the resumption of tourism, the Minister of Health is defending a number of controversial travel protocols, with which visitors were asked to abide.

Whether through evasion or accident, a more virulent, deadly strain of COVID-19, the B-117 variant, broke through the island’s defences, leading to almost six times as many deaths in the first three-and-a-half months of 2021 than in all of 2020.

“We needed to tighten up in relation to [the enforcement of] protocols, in relation to visitors to hotels and we have now been able to use technology, additional manpower for monitoring and a monitoring unit that can help us in that regard. That is one of the things that we could have done differently or improve, certainly yes,” Lt Col Bostic told journalists.

Another area of concern for the man leading the charge was a significant shortage of testing supplies that resulted in an embarrassing backlog of testing, leaving visitors in quarantine for exorbitant amounts of time

He told reporters: “We tried our best to secure those supplies, especially for the lab at an early enough time that turned out not to be early enough, and that really cramped the organisation and pushed us back significantly.”

“I’m happy to say that we now have reagents and supplies in abundance, so we will not see that happening again.”

As predicted, the pandemic is showing no signs of letting up and with a third virus wave looming in Europe, the minister has vowed to apply the same mantra that he claims for Barbados’ relative success in the fight against the coronavirus: “No retreat, no surrender.”  (kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb)