Barbados dodges severe third wave

The expectation that thousands of persons would become sick due to the Omicron outbreak has not materialized.

Chief Medical Officer (CMO) The Most Honourable Dr Kenneth George delivered the welcomed news today, saying that the third wave of COVID-19 had not been as devastating as previously predicted.

During a press conference on January 5, Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Anton Best explained that modelling conducted by the University of the West Indies forecasted that in a worst case scenario Barbados could witness a wave lasting six to seven weeks with as many as 3500 cases per day and a total of 91 000 infections during the period.

He pointed out that a best case scenario would see a shorter wave lasting just over four weeks with a maximum of 1500 cases per day and 23 000 cases in total.

Dr Best said the high number of infected persons could possibly lead to a scenario where as much as 700 people were hospitalized.

To date, Barbados’ highest number of positive cases for a single day is 923, which was recorded on January 25.

Speaking to members of the media on the sidelines of a donation of equipment at the St Philip District Hospital this morning, Dr George said he was grateful the numbers had been much fewer than initially predicted.

He said the Ministry of Health and Wellness was continuing to encourage persons to get booster shots as they had been proven to provide an additional protection, especially against the Omicron variant.

“…Fortunately many persons haven’t had to be hospitalized. We believe that the course of illness is not as severe as the Delta and I think we will get through this. As I have been telling the population all the time this is our third wave and we have gotten through each wave and I expect that we will get through this wave also.

“Although there has been significant community spread we certainly continue to analyze the data daily and we believe that we are in our fifth to sixth week of the Omicron outbreak and the predictions of thousands of people have not come through and that is comforting, but at the same time I think the message remains the same,” Dr George said.

“We continue to do our internal modeling which is slightly different from UWI’s modeling but I don’t think that we will reach the numbers that have been predicted to the press. However, we can control this by simply having persons comply with what we ask. The major area of compliance we are asking is with booster doses because I am convinced that boosters add an added layer of protection with respect to preventing severe disease and severe outcomes.”

The CMO also revealed that the ministry had boosted its testing capabilities with the addition of three new testing sites.

Dr George said the testing laboratories at The Crane Resort, Bayview and ChemScreen, were now available to do both PCR and antigen testing.

“With respect to how we move forward this cannot be a Government only response and therefore the private sector is certainly welcomed,” he said.
randybennett@barbadostoday.bb