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United States Ambassador to Barbados, the Eastern Caribbean and the OECS, Linda Taglialatela (left) in talks with Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Kenneth George.

Barbadians must not let their guard down during pandemic

Barbadians are being encouraged not to let their guard down, as the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

The caution came recently from this country’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Kenneth George, after he joined United States Ambassador to Barbados, the Eastern Caribbean and the OECS, Linda Taglialatela on a tour of the state-of-the-art Best-dos Santos Public Health Laboratory.  Laboratory Director Songee Beckles led the tour. Also present was CDC Laboratory Advisor, Giselle Guevara.

Dr. George acknowledged that whilst members of the Barbadian public and visitors to the island generally have been following the recommended health protocols in relation to COVID-19, there have been a few instances where challenges have arisen.

“There has been good co-operation. The Barbadian public has been cooperating with the protocols, but every now and then we have had issues, which causes us to not be very happy in a few cases and many of you know that’s the role of the COVID-19 Monitoring Unit. They have been working to make sure that our villas are safe, our hotels are safe and our churches and places of social discourse are safe. So generally, we have a good grade, but as more persons come into the island, I keep saying that we can’t let our guard down. We have to be ever vigilant. We will be in this for the long haul and therefore, we expect the cooperation of every Barbadian citizen,” Dr. George commented.

Just recently, health officials indicated that there were two cases of COVID-19 (a 62 year old Barbadian woman and a 25 year old Barbadian man) that were diagnosed as a result of contact tracing, related to a twenty-four year old woman who arrived in the island on Virgin Atlantic on September 19 and who tested positive after a second test on September 24.

Dr. George, whilst noting that the COVID-19 Monitoring Unit deals more so with such cases, however indicated that when contact tracing is able to come into effect, it means that “the system is working”.

“Without speaking directly to that case, contact tracing is a deliberate and purposeful way of making sure that you gain a historical perspective of when a person is diagnosed and who they came into contact with. Each of those individual contacts are then risk stratified, so some may need a test, some may not need a test,” he explained.

“So I would just encourage the Barbadian public that when you see persons being tested, it is not for you to become scared. It’s telling you that the system is working and that we are making sure that we do every step to make sure that every person that the individual came into contact with, we are interrogating and will be testing,” the Chief Medical Officer said. (RSM)

 

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