(By Ernesto Cooke) – Due to the rising cases of COVID-19 in evacuation shelters and the resistance of evacuees to comply with testing, new measures have been instituted at shelters in two communities in St Vincent.
On Sunday, health officials reported that the island recorded Eighteen (18) new COVID-19 positive cases.
Sixteen (16) of these eighteen (18) cases are evacuees in emergency shelters.
Chief Medical Officer Simone Keizer-Beache on Monday 3rd May stated that Health Officials have shut down access to shelters in Biabou and Stubbs located in the Eastern corridor of the island.
“This is an effort to contain, because what we have is a situation where there was a rise in cases in a matter of days, and that is because we have not been able to test and also because if you test negative today, you might be positive if we test again in five days”.
The CMO said quarantine areas and isolation areas have been instituted, along with testing on a five-day cycle to pick up new positives.
As of Monday, 3rd May 2021, over 14,526 persons were vaccinated in the Southern Caribbean island.
One thousand, eight hundred and eighty-two (1882) cases of COVID-19 and seventeen hundred and thirty-one (1731) recoveries have been recorded in St. Vincent and the Grenadines since March 2020.
One hundred and forty (140) cases are currently active, and eleven (11) persons with COVID-19 have died.
