With the Omicron variant of COVID-19 still raging, the Ministry of Health intends to step up its fight in order to protect the most vulnerable on the island.
Speaking during Saturday’s COVID-19 press briefing, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Kenneth George said the current dominant variant of the virus continues to spread rapidly through many institutions on the island.
“We have outbreaks in several of our institutions – within the Geriatric Hospital, within the Psychiatric Hospital, we have two nursing homes, and one children’s home, and the spread of infection in these [areas] is testimony to the level of infection within our communities,” he explained.
Health officials are also finalizing plans to introduce satellite locations for the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in order to reduce the amount of traffic and stress the site is currently under.
“We have put some key strategies in place with respect to making sure first that the Queen Elizabeth Hospital is given some space to do what it needs to do. What I mean by that, is that we are actively going to be rolling out one to as high as three satellite sites. These satellite sites are not going to be school-based satellite sites, these satellite sites are intended to provide care and support for individuals who are either ill or moderately ill.
“This is a good method to give the Queen Elizabeth Hospital buffer … the Accident and Emergency Department is stressed because not only persons with COVID but we also have to manage non-COVID cases. Therefore if we have a step-down facility that can manage the moderate and mild cases, and manage within those facilities, certainly this will assist in the stresses to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital at this point in time,” he said.
The three locations will be announced within the upcoming week.
While referencing the previous projection by the University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus, that the current wave is expected to last eight to 10 weeks, the CMO said that Barbados is currently at the halfway point as it is week four to five in this current wave.
Though insisting that the island’s medical fraternity was still handling the surge well despite the daily high numbers, Dr George revealed that some COVID positive persons who were in home isolation were still breaking isolation protocols and leaving their premises, a move he said must cease.
“Persons who are in isolation are breaching the isolation protocols. When you are in isolation you are deemed to be infectious, and therefore it is highly important that you remain in your homes, at your locations, and stay put.” (SB)
