Saint Lucia records first COVID-19 case in over a month

Story via CMC – St. Lucia recorded its first positive case for more than a month while Jamaica and Haiti recorded deaths from the coronavirus (COVID-19) over the last 24 hours. The health authorities in Jamaica said six additional COVID-19 related deaths and 196 new cases had been recorded in the last 24 hours and that the death toll now stands at 138. They said that three of the newly reported deaths were previously under investigation.

Jamaica has 7,559.positive cases of the virus and of the latest cases, their ages were between one month to 96- years old. There were also 40 recoveries bringing the total number of recoveries to 3,142.

In Haiti, the Ministry of Public Health is reporting 19 new cases of COVID- 19 pushing the total to 8,854 since the first case was detected on March 19. One person died in the West Department and the death toll now stands at 230. The number of persons who have since recovered is 7,013 but there are 1, 611 active cases.

In Suriname, the number of active COVID-19 cases fell back below the 100 limit to be at 96. In the last 24 hours, 14 persons tested positive, with 12 of them being in the capital, Paramaribo. The Dutch-speaking Caribbean country has a total of 5,018 corona cases.

“The number of people cured is 4,816, including 20 in the past 24 hours. For the sixth day in a row, the death toll remained stationary at 106. Furthermore, there are 29 people in hospitals, four in intensive care units and 60 positives in isolation,” the Ministry of Health said.

It said the number of civilians in quarantine increased to 424 after it was reported on October 6 that there were no people in quarantine at all. The sharp increase in three days has to do with the passengers who came from the Netherlands.

A 54-year-old female visitor tested positive for COVID-19, pushing Barbados’ tally of confirmed cases to 205.

The woman, whose travel originated in the United States, landed in Barbados on an Air Canada flight on Thursday. Her result was one of the 528 tests conducted by the Best-dos Santos Public Health Laboratory on Thursday. To date, the lab has completed 26 971 tests.

One person recovered from the viral illness and was discharged from isolation.  This brings the island’s total number of recoveries to 183, while the number of persons in isolation remains at 15.  There were seven deaths since the first case was recorded in March.

The Chief Medical Officer, in St. Lucia, Dr. Sharon Belmar-George, said a 48 year old male national is the latest case there. He has since been placed at the Respiratory Hospital for care.

This brings the total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in St. Lucia to date to 29 and the health authorities said that “at this point of the investigation, the source of infection is not confirmed.

“The Epidemiology Unit of the Ministry of Health has commenced contact tracing immediately in the communities. This process would aid in determining the source of infection,” Dr. Belmar-George said urging commuters on public transportation on the Castries to the southern town of Vieux-Fort to be very careful.

“The Ministry of Health is requesting anyone who travelled from the 2H Castries-Vieux-Fort route via minibus M481 during the period Monday, September 28, 2020 to Friday, October 9, 2020 to report to the respiratory clinics for assessment and possible testing,” she added.