COVID’s presence still haunts

As much as people would like to put the horrific COVID-19 pandemic behind them, it keeps lingering like a sore that refuses to heal.

The fact that government has outlined plans to repurpose the Harrison Point Facility that once treated the most severely affected patients of the coronavirus disease and dismantled the dashboard providing information on infections, emphasises that government too, wishes it could put the respiratory disease in the rearview mirror.

Earlier this year, Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Kenneth George, explained the Ministry of Health made the decision to end the information dashboard  since COVID-19 transmissions remained “very low”, deaths associated with the disease had also declined, and no COVID-19 related deaths had been reported in the previous three to four months.

The dashboard, which documented COVID-19 cases, test results and deaths, was established by the Ministry in 2020 as the number of cases grew and people demanded information about the disease’s impact. The dashboard gave members of the public an accurate report on the number of confirmed hospitalisations and the number of vaccinated persons.

For those who wish a reminder of exactly how terrible this once-in-a-century pandemic was on the Barbadian public health system, as at April 13 this year, the island has recorded almost 111,000 confirmed cases, while 648 people died from COVID-19.

The social and economic impacts of the pandemic were also traumatic with the country’s economy almost imploding from the shock. 

Given the island’s high dependency on the tourism sector, when international travel was severely restricted, the hospitality sector came to a virtual halt leading to hotel and restaurant closures. Those that depended on tourism such as the cultural industries, attractions, transportation, and the agricultural sector, all took a major hit. 

Those who were at critical points in their education whether at primary, secondary or tertiary levels can attest to the lingering effects of that period. Education professionals have outlined that many of the deficits in newcomers to secondary schools have been directly linked to the pandemic period.

Though it is the desire of most people to speak of a post-COVID environment, the disease appears to be making a comeback with a new variant of corona.

The World Health Organisation (WHO), which was severely maligned during the pandemic by those waging a war of misinformation about vaccines, is again warning of a significant rise in COVID-19 cases across the globe.

“COVID-19 is still very much with us,” and circulating in all countries, WHO official Dr Maria Van Kerkhove stated. 

The public health official warned countries: “Data from our sentinel-based surveillance system across 84 countries reports that the per cent of positive tests for SARS-CoV-2 has been rising over several weeks.”

Here at home, Dr Lynda Williams, the president of the Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners (BAMP) reminded citizens that the same precautions that protected them during the pandemic will still be useful in 2024.

The precaution of frequent handwashing and sanitising, covering your nose and mouth when coughing and sneezing, and of course wearing a mask if you fall into the group of compromised persons such as pregnant women, elderly and young children, represent critical actions.

Dr Williams, who was also the target of attacks from some quarters for positions which the medical fraternity took on  management of the public health threat, urged a return to mask wearing as the new sub-variant JN1 spreads.

“It has greater transmission . . . it doesn’t have any greater mortality, but anything that can spread faster will affect the vulnerable people most quickly, so we have to go back to the usual hand-washing and wearing of masks around people who are vulnerable and especially if they are working with them.”

JN1’s symptoms are similar to those of other strains, including sore throat, congestion, runny nose, cough, fatigue, headache, muscle aches, fever or chills, loss of sense of taste or smell, and shortness of breath or difficulty breathing.

To their credit, there were many Barbadians who did not stop wearing masks, even after the pandemic’s spread was subsiding and a “return to normal” was being effected.

Today, the approach to COVID-19 is one of self-awareness rather than government mandates. The country has been through the worst of this disease and so people are cognizant of the protections they need to take in order to preserve their health.