Pandemic passes grim new landmark

The number of Barbadians killed by the coronavirus soared into triple figures as three more people died on Monday, the health ministry reported.

Daily new infections also surpassed the 300-mark as the surge of the Delta variant of the coronavirus showed little sign of abating.

The deceased include a 59-year-old woman and an 88-year-old man at the Accident & Emergency Department of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

A 76-year-old man died at the Harrison’s Point Isolation Facility.  All of them were unvaccinated.  The death toll now stands at 101.

The Ministry of Health confirmed there were 324 new coronavirus infections from 2,781 tests conducted by The Best-dos Santos Public Health Laboratory on Monday.

Close to one in three of the cases are children, with 260 people who are 18 years and older.

The number of people currently in isolation facilities declined to 537 as Government implemented its home isolation policy, which now sees 2,284 infected people staying at home.

Barbados has recorded a total of 11,474 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since March last year.

The public health laboratory has conducted 345,246 tests, since February 2020.

The COVID-19 vaccination programme has delivered the first dose to 62.4 per cent of the eligible population – 142,623 jabs.

The number of fully vaccinated people slowly approaches half of those eligible to take the vaccine – 113,022 people or 41.7 per cent of the total population.
(SD)