#BTColumn – COVID – ready to party with Crop Over

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author(s) do not represent the official position of Barbados TODAY. 

by Dr. Colin V. Alert

COVID is still here: in fact, looking out at what is happening to our ‘big-brother’ countries to the north, those countries who supply us with a majority of our tour-ists, whether they be Bajan-Yankees, Bajan-Canadians or have come to “little England” from “Big England”, these countries are all having surges in covid cases re-cently.

They generally attribute this to new variants of the omicron virus, called BA4 or BA5. (Three months ago, we were informed that BA2 was in town). These newest strains are more transmissible (’spread more rapidly’) than previous strains, and are more likely to at least partially evade the protection offered by our current vaccines.

At home official COVID-19 safety restrictions have been significantly, if prematurely, relaxed and just a handful of persons think testing for COVID-19 is an important public (or even personal) health measure.

Our COVID-19 positive numbers have trickled upwards in the last few days, in particular the known numbers of people who have official tests and need to be isolated. These COVID-19 variants are moving so ‘fast and furious’, that we haven’t been told whether our uptick is due to any of the newest variants.

But one thing is certain. The activities usually practised at the mass gathering events and festivals that populate the Crop Over landscape, and the measures that attempt to keep Covid-19 at bay, don’t like each other. While we welcome visitors, and they are coming from countries with rising Covid-19 rates, then some of them will bring in the corona viruses. This is more likely so since we have relaxed our screening of those visiting the country.

When one sees pictures in the newspapers depicting the most recent Crop Over fetes, one recalls the words from a popular David Rudder song: “This is not a fete in here, this is madness”.

Unfortunately, a few of these people will still end up under the care of our overworked medical personnel in our isolation centers, and the taxpayers will (ultimately) have to foot the bill for their care.

Our local population is a population that considers Covid-19 preventive measures as unnecessary shackles, a population of whom large numbers have declined to become fully vaccinated. Some families chose to abandon their elderly relatives at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and the Harrison Point Isolation Center, so that they have the time (and in some cases the old people’s money) to party.

[An elderly rel-atively having COVID-19 is ‘ideal’ as they don’t even have to visit their relatives in isolation]. While the earlier strains of covid-19 were considered as ‘serious as a heart attack’, the public perception is that the latest strains seem to be ‘just like a bad flu’. The really sick persons, or the families of the over 475 (and counting) per-sons who have died, or even the hardworking staff at the Isolation centers, can paint a different picture.

While we are thankful that we have gotten past the delta variant, which was more deadly, the omicron family seems
to be more infectious, but thankfully less deadly. This perhaps has caused us to drop our official guard. But less deadly does not mean not deadly at al.

Many persons have diseases like obesity, diabetes, hypertension and lipid abnormalities including elevated cholesterol levels. These illnesses are called ‘silent killers’ because, like termites in a wooden house, they can eat you out from the inside without you being aware from the outside that anything is happening.

Since many people only seek medical attention when they are ‘sick’, these silent diseases often do major damage internally, to brains, eyes, the heart and the kidneys in particular, before it is even realised that anything may
be hap-pening.

Unfortunately, the COVID-19 variants seem to seek out people harbouring these silent illnesses, so even the mild omicron variants cause some persons to end up with serious heart, lung and kidney issues. Sometimes the damage is long lasting “long COVID”, sometimes the damage is terminal.

So, if we hope to keep COVID-19 at arm’s length, personal protective behaviour must get priority consideration. This starts with being fully vaccinated, including getting all boosters that you are eligible for. Crop Over crowds do not allow social distancing, and so they should be avoided if possible. A properly fitted face mask is better than no protection at all, if you do end up in a crowd, and outdoors is always better than indoors.

The most common symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, dry cough, tiredness and loss of taste or smell. Less common symptoms include aches and pains, headache, sore throat, red or irritated eyes, diarrhea, a skin rash or discoloration
of fingers or toes.

If you feel ill, making sure you have a negative COVID-19 test is important be-fore going into any medical institution; we have also learnt (the hard way) that in some persons a COVID-19 test, initially negative when you first become ill, may only become positive a few days later. [This seems to be a difference between the delta and the omicron strains: the Covid-19 test becomes positive very early with delta, but may only become positive after a few days with the omicron.]

This means that, with a high degree of suspicion, do not completely rule out COVID-19 if the first test is negative.  When in doubt, self-isolate, and repeat the test a couple of days later. If you test positive for COVID-19, self-isolate for 10 days, plus three days after the symptoms cease, whichever is the latter. Hand hygiene is critical: wash your hands frequently with soap and water or an alcohol-based sanitiser.

We may be labeled as ‘anti-social’ if we are overly cautious in avoiding persons with a ‘slight cold’ or a
‘touch of sinuses’, or in allowing them to get close to our elderly relatives, but “better safe than sorry” should be our guiding principle.

For many people, it may be unrealistic that they are completely isolated from other people most of the time,
so personal protection must still be emphasised. Being fully vaccinated, and always wearing a face mask in public, are important parts of this.

BAMP has re-emphasized this. Your own hand sanitiser should accompany you 24/7, especially if you have to touch door knobs, use a public washroom, use hand rails or even elevator buttons.

Trips to the market, supermarket, gas station, post office and any other public space, whether indoors or outdoors, should trigger a ‘high alert’ response, and must bring out your sanitiser. Do not stay in-doors in these places longer than necessary.

Make no mistake about it: the COVID-19 virus is changing its stripes faster than a Crop Over reveller can change his/her costume. The COVID-19 variants are ready to party, and ‘do bad’. Get out the way! Crop Over may show up once a year, but all current indications point to the evolving variants of COVID-19 hanging around for a very long time, maiming a few, and killing a few people along the way. Protect yourself or become an unfortunate statistic.

Dr. Colin V. Alert, MB BS, DM. is a family physician and associate UWI family medicine lecturer.