REGIONAL – Delta Variant of COVID-19 is in Dominica

Source: Nature Isle News – Dominica’s Minister for Health, Dr. Irving McIntyre has confirmed that the presence of Delta Variant of Covid-19 is now in Dominica.

A few weeks ago Dr. McIntyre revealed that the Ministry of Health had sent out samples to the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) to ascertain for the Delta Variant.

The results Dr. McIntyre said returned in the affirmative.

“All our samples sent to CARPHA, which were subsequently sent to the University of the West Indies (UWI) for sequencing, returned positive for the Delta Variant,” he said.

According to him, this particular variant rarely has any cough and fever, but rather joint pains, headache, neck and upper back pain, general weakness, loss of appetite, and pneumonia.

He explained that the Delta Variant is also more virulent and takes less time to become extreme, leading to a higher death rate.

“This is because the Delta Variant does not remain in the nasal cavity for a long period of time, but quickly settles down to the lungs leading to pneumonia and in some cases eventually leading to death,” Dr. stated.

He said it is of paramount importance that everyone participates in the vaccination roll-out of the Pfizer vaccine.

“We have had numerous consultations with the Ministry of Education since the Pfizer vaccine will be available to persons within the age group of 12 to 17 years,” he stated.  “We are developing new strategies to get to the target population to include the corporate sector, public service, schools, and the wider community.”

Dominica’s stock of vaccines he said is more than enough for the population with – 13,943 Sinopharm vaccines, 10,000 AstraZeneca, and the expected 46,800 Pfizer vaccines.

The Health Minister reiterated the importance of following the public, health, and social measures that have been put in place.

“These guidelines are scientific and have proven to work,” he noted. “These are the very same guidelines that kept us safe in the early stages of the Pandemic.”