As COVID surge deepens, top doc laments ‘unwanted deaths’, urges ‘work with us’

Delivering the sombre news that the island has recorded four deaths in the last three days from the coronavirus, including three in 24 hours, Chief Medical Officer Dr Kenneth George declared the current outbreak as “frightening” and that Barbados was “not in a good situation” amid the latest surge.

In a video message delivered via the Barbados Government Information Service, a masked Dr George said: “Folks, we are not in a good situation. Our isolation is close to capacity. Our quarantine has many hundreds of primary contacts. We need to start to do the right thing and therefore I urge you that many of these deaths are what we would term in public health, unwanted deaths.”

On the heels of Tuesday’s death of a 60-year-old unvaccinated man who had comorbidities, the CMO reported that a 97-year-old woman who had underlying conditions died on Wednesday after being in isolation for “a period of days”.

The other two deceased are males. The death toll now stands at 56.

“We had a 51-year-old male who presented to the Accident and Emergency Department with low oxygen levels and was later intubated at Harrison’s Point,” said Dr George. “He also had comorbid conditions and he also passed.

“The final case was an elderly male who died this morning around 10 o’clock. He was 93-years-old, he also had comorbidities, presented with hypoxia (where oxygen levels in the blood can drop to dangerously low levels) and was with us for four days.”

As he expressed condolences to the friends and families of the deceased, Dr George lamented the “unwanted deaths.”

He said: “This is sad news today that four persons have indeed died over three days… at least two of individuals this is unwanted deaths. We could be doing better, so folks just work with us please, work with us, the ministry remains committed to this fight, our officers are toiling on your behalf every single day we come to work, every day, going the extra mile and all we are asking you to do is a few simple public health measures to make sure that we contain this virus at this difficult time.”

The Chief Medical Officer said it was “frightening” that COVID-19 was affecting all age groups. He expressed particular concern about the virus’ impact on children.

“We have indicated to the public that based on our records we have identified that children are making up 15 to 20 per cent of COVID cases. This is frightening, “he said.

He also expressed concern that COVID-19 sufferers in the community were seeking treatment too late.

Dr George made an impassioned plea for the public to take some corrective action to stop the virus in its tracks by practising social distancing, wearing masks even among families and getting vaccinated.

He declared: “There is too much mixing of people, I see it by myself bars, restaurants, and rum shops, the fellows have one or two drinks and after that, the mask comes off.

“Persons are letting their guard down in families. We understand that families, households must be considered safe havens but if your family has a lot of traffic and you don’t know who is who in the family, we will advise you that in those circumstances wear a mask.

“And finally,  the message of vaccination, [vaccination]  still adds an extra layer of protection. We have scaled up our responses and we are doing much more community-targeted vaccination intervention. Why? Because we would like to get to where the people are.”

As of Wednesday, 71 new cases from 2,132 tests were confirmed as the number of people in isolation jumped to 828.

Among the new cases are 33 females and 38 males with 21 under the age of 18, while 50 are 18 and older.

Barbados has recorded 6,248 confirmed cases of the virus since March 2020.

Vaccination rates continue to be sluggish as only 35.7 per cent of the population, or 96,715 people, have received their second dose and are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

So far, 123,255 first doses have been administered. (sandydeane@barbadostoday.bb)