EDITORIAL: Support key during this pandemic
IT has been noted and commendably so, that the PAHO Office for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean Countries has been supporting countries under its remit, in developing COVID-19 pandemic preparedness and response plans to ensure a well-coordinated and effective response to the pandemic.
To date, PAHO is providing technical guidance to assist with case detections for surveillance purposes, data collection tools, molecular testing, data management and mathematical modelling. PAHO has also provided Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean Countries (ECC) with tools and training to conduct Health Care Worker COVID-19 exposure risk assessment and management, and has provided countries with personal protective equipment (PPE) for the protection of these workers. This provision has included the delivery of 4,000 PPE Kits, 136,910 surgical masks, 940 N95 masks, 12,900 surgical gowns, 660 protective goggles and 27,900 examination gloves. According to Dr. Rufus Ewing, PAHO/WHO Advisor for Health Systems and Services, PAHO supported Barbados and the ECC in building capacity to model COVID-19 case projections and resource needs, to effectively respond to and manage COVID-19 cases.
As we know, Barbados and other countries have had to expand and re-organise their health services with the development of quarantine and isolation and treatment facilities, to adequately respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and PAHO has provided technical assistance to facilitate this response.
Indeed, such support for Barbados and other Eastern Caribbean Countries has not gone unnoticed, as Caribbean countries are all fighting this public health battle with detrimental economic spin-off effects and they clearly cannot fight it alone and therefore need all the help they can get. Thus, the work of the PAHO Office is critical and indeed laudable, even as the representatives there continue to ramp up their response to help countries emerge from this devastating pandemic.
To date, after the first COVID-19 case was reported in Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean sub-region in March 2020, the overall incidence rate for the sub-region stands at 20.05 cases per 100,000 population. According to PAHO, Barbados and Dominica have reported clusters of cases, whereas the rest of the countries have reported sporadic cases only. The great majority of cases have either travelled to a foreign country with evidence of community transmission or been in contact with someone with such a history. Thankfully, over fifty per cent of the cases have recovered from the disease. All countries are actively tracing contacts of laboratory confirmed cases, as part of their strategy to slow the spread of the infection and public measures including behavioural measures, border measures, school closures and nationwide curfews are in place, in almost all countries.
As PAHO continues its work to assist countries in its remit with technical guidance, training, tools and equipment and the like, we must remain grateful for such critical aid, which has been key in helping us all to navigate this invisible threat, that is this COVID-19.
Now, as Barbados seeks to ease some of its restrictions previously set in place, we must be mindful that we are not yet in a place to truly overcome this pandemic and as such, citizens must continue to adhere to all recommended regulations, guidelines and safety protocols put in place, so that we do not erase the gains made so far in tackling this crippling pandemic.