SOLID approach

Health and Wellness Minister, Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Bostic has sought to assure Barbadians that his Ministry is not operating in a vacuum as it relates to COVID-19. Rather it has taken a collaborative approach.

His comments were in response to a question about his view on the Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners’ (BAMP) call for mandatory testing on arrival and a reinstatement of the two-week mandatory quarantine for all travellers from medium and high-risk countries, with retesting after one week.

Bostic spoke to the media ahead of receiving a donation of medical supplies during a ceremony recently at the Ministry’s headquarters.

“We have been guided throughout this process by the World Health Organisation, the Pan American Health Organisation, the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA). We have adopted a collaborative approach which also includes BAMP but at the end of the day, we have some public health officers who are very experienced, who are technically qualified and knowledgeable and know exactly what they are doing. They provide all the advice that is required to me.”

Bostic, who stated he has seen BAMP’s statement, said those in authority have listened to persons within the country when they expressed their opinions. However, they have been managing the process based “on the science, based on our experience and based on the sound technical advice that we have been getting from our international and regional partners to be able to make determinations.”

“The protocols that we have for testing, we believe that those protocols are serving us well…”

“This is not a random or ad hoc operation, we are not being reckless, this is being very carefully and meticulously planned and executed. We have different measures in place and different specs to be able to capture persons coming into the country.”

He added, “Is the system 100 percent perfect? Nope, but I will tell you what we are going to give it 100 percent to make sure that we capture all persons coming into the country and it has been working very well so far. So that, although I have heard what BAMP has said, at the end of the day we have to balance this situation.”(MG)