COVID community testing continues

Government’s community testing programme has so far turned up no positive COVID-19 cases after conducting more than 200 tests. But, a senior medical official says the programme will continue.

Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Kenneth George on Friday confirmed the Ministry of Health’s intention to persist with the programme as it identifies potential communities which are at risk for the spread of the disease.

Dr George said the campaign, which recommenced last Monday and has been targeted at business houses and community groups, has so far captured Sheraton Centre Mall in Christ Church and a much larger operation in the neighbouring Sargeant’s Village area.

“Previous to that we did some work in Lead Vale and Sayes in Christ Church. So far we haven’t gotten back any positives from our intervention. But that doesn’t mean that we should stop,” the chief medical officer told Barbados TODAY.

But apart from that, the CMO pointed out that positive cases are still being recorded every day island-wide.

“Yesterday, we picked up 27. They are from multiple areas…business houses, some from families…we are still seeing a lot of COVID clusters in families. We are even seeing some in government places,” he disclosed, while adding that he was not in a position to provide numbers for these clusters at this time.

The government’s chief medical advisor also revealed that the ministry has further expanded the island’s ability to isolate suspected positive cases in light of the surging numbers of infections.

“Queen’s College has come online. Before that it was Daryll Jordan Secondary School…and Sun Bay is stood up; Blackman and Gollop is stood up. This was done not only out of urgency but planning forward for the need to isolate many more people,” Dr George revealed.

The CMO disclosed that the capacity for quarantine at selected hotels has also been upgraded.

“With respect to quarantine hotels, we have managed to secure up to 350 extra rooms because our quarantine programme, I still believe, is what gives us a buffer, because we still quarantine primary contacts,” he said.

The top health official, however, issued a caution regarding future contact tracing efforts.

“You would imagine that as we get more cases, it becomes a little more difficult to do contact tracing. But we continue to put a lot of resources into that,” Dr George assured.

On Thursday, the Best Dos Santos Laboratory tested 1,557 people, six of whom were children under 18 testing positive.  Up to yesterday, 425 individuals were in isolation.

Fifty one people have died so far from the virus.
(emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb)