Positive COVID-19 cases up to 26
AN additional two persons have tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, bringing the island’s total to 26.
Making the announcement yesterday in the Lower House, Health Minister Lt. Col. Jeffrey Bostic said the two had emerged from 26 tests conducted on Thursday.
“One of those is a 65-year-old Barbadian who had travelled to the United States and returned and that person is now in isolation and contact tracing has begun, moving aggressively to be able to identify, locate and treat to those contacts. The other person, I am awaiting some information on that individual, but there are now 26 cases,” he stated.
Bostic continued to give the assurance the island’s health system was on top of the situation.
He pointed out that with the isolation facility at Harrison’s Point not yet complete, the alternative facility at Paragon for persons with minor systems was already in use and also acting as a screening centre.
“We also have facilities at the St. Lucy District Hospital and the Elaine Scantlebury Centre for quarantining persons who are asymptomatic, been around other persons with COVID-19, or had travelled to hotspots,” he said.
He made the comments while tabling the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (Amendment) Bill 2020, which makes provision for the designation of appropriate lands or building to be considered to be a part of the island’s main medical facility.
Therefore, the isolation and quarantine facilities would now be placed under the jurisdiction of the board and management of the QEH, as well as any other additional facilities which may need to be utilised for the management of the virus.
“We must also be able to at short notice, depending on how things are spreading with the virus, be able to move from one facility to another. So it is possible in the future that a facility that is designated as a quarantine facility, could become an isolation facility and if we need other structures to be able to utilise for COVID, this Bill gives us the opportunity to be able to do so and this is the basis for this,” he stated. (JMB)