Barbados praised for COVID-19 response

Barbados has “done remarkably well” in its handling of the covid-19 pandemic.

That’s the view of Sir George Alleyne, former Director General of the
Pan American Health Organisation.

His comments came on Saturday evening during a zoom call with the
Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley, as he along with other Barbadians in
the Diaspora took part in We Gatherin’ 2020 – The Online Edition,
during which Prime Minister Mottley along with Members of Cabinet and
the Government, took time to respond to questions and concerns from
Barbadians living overseas.

Barbados, up to yesterday, had recorded 97 cases of covid-19, of which
seven persons succumbed to the virus, 85 have recovered and five
remain in isolation.

“Over the years you have established health systems, resilient health
systems. And what do I mean by resilient health systems? Systems that
can respond before a crisis, during a crisis and after a crisis and I
would compliment you on the health systems you developed. Barbados has
been traditionally well known for its public health staff and I would
like to highlight not only the doctors, but also the public health
nurses, who have been really remarkable over the years. So in terms of
what Barbados has done, and the tactics you have adopted, I would give
you really very, very high marks indeed,” he said.

Noting that attention must of necessity be placed on the country’s
approach post-covid, Sir George said that one thing he would wish
government to think about, is what it will do to ensure that
non-communicable diseases (NCDs) get adequate attention.

His comments came as he reflected on the negative and sometimes fatal
impact which covid-19 has on patients who have NCDs.

“There is one aspect that is near and dear to my heart – the group
that has the highest mortality as a result of covid are the elderly
and those that have one of the chronic diseases. So the question is,
how do you post-covid, put in place the things to stop the development
of these diseases?” he said.

With that in mind, the renowned doctor called for special attention to
be placed on children and adolescents, to ensure that they do not
engage in activities that would lead to them developing any of those
non-communicable diseases like diabetes or hypertension.

“Make sure they don’t smoke, make sure they don’t become obese,
because those are the two things that are going to lead to them
developing the non-communicable diseases that would make them
especially vulnerable to any pandemic that does occur,” he stated.

In response, Prime Minister Mottley while accepting the commendation
on the response to covid, explained that it had as its foundation the
work of decades of continuity as successive governments have given
high priority to public health systems.

“We were worried in the last few years because some of the capacity
was being tested in a way that we felt was perhaps a little rough for
it, but what we did at the beginning is say we did not want people to
go to the QEH if we could help it. We can’t guarantee that they would
never go there, but we would try our best to keep it out of the QEH,”
she said.

As such, she said spending money to retrofit Harrison’s Point and
equip it with 78 critical care beds and 120 tertiary beds was money
well spent. She indicated that those steps have the country in a much
stronger position than on March 28, when the public health emergency
lockdown began.
(JRT)

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