Doc: Report any changes immediately

Those persons who have tested positive for COVID-19 and are in home isolation, are being urged to report any change in their symptoms to the health authorities as soon as possible.

The advice is coming from Dr. Adanna Grandison, First Vice President of the Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners (BAMP) and the Consultant Manager of the Home Quarantine Programme. She spoke to this during a press conference yesterday morning hosted by the COVID-19 Public Advisor, David Ellis.

She explained that where a person is allowed to home isolate the goal is to reach out to them within 72 hours to determine if their symptoms have changed. Where that occurs, she said they will “up triage” them to get them the care they need. However, Dr. Grandison stated that should a person’s symptoms change before the health authorities are able to contact them, it is vital that they call the dedicated call centre for COVID positive persons at 5361800 and report it.   

“A person’s there who can answer the questions that you have. You may need a simple query, but if you’re having any symptoms, this is the first point of contact, and then they will escalate it up, to get you the requisite care that you need,” she said.

The doctor also warned people about thinking that the virus affects everyone the same, noting that people will be required to be in isolation for different periods of time.

“It is not a hard core days count - ‘I’ve stayed in isolation for 13 days, of I’ve stayed in isolation for 25 days, I need to go’. That’s not how it works; this is based primarily on a clinical assessment. So we want to ensure that you stay safe because a person can start off with no symptoms, and on day six their clinical course changes and they now have symptoms, they’re now starting to feel unwell [and] a lot of persons may not think that they’re feeling unwell,” she said.

The Consultant Manager added, “We’ve heard of persons who say ‘no, no, I’m good’, but when they present and we take their oxygenation status, we’re now starting to notice that that person has diminished oxygenation. And so we want to reassess them and get them the requisite care”.

While acknowledging that persons are scared to be admitted to the Harrison Point isolation centre, she is giving the assurance that they need not fear, contending that the facility provides optimum care to patients.

Meanwhile, questioned as to if there have been any reported deaths among those persons who are in the home isolation programme, she indicated that none have been reported to date, but did explain that there are persons who have died at home and subsequently tested positive for the virus. As such, she emphasised the need for people to be tested so that they know their COVID-19 status.

“There are reported deaths which are persons who presented and have been tested and know their status, and then there are persons who are actually walking around that don’t know their status, but they cannot be added to the total number of persons in [the] community that are positive, but they’re out there. So we have had some persons who had not been tested in what we call the antemortem phase or prior to death, and they did not know their status, and upon death they were tested and were known to be positive; and these persons would have been living at home like normal. So they’re not part of the home isolation programme, but they are persons who died at home,” she stated.

(JRT)