As Her Majesty’s Prisons Dodds records more positive cases of COVID-19, the public is being assured that the St. Philip penal institution has adequate capacity for isolation to handle the increased numbers.
Minister of Health and Wellness, Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Bostic, tonight indicated that the latest round of results, which contained 974 tests, produced 84 positive cases, of which 67 were from the prison. The remaining amount represented a combination of locals and visitors who tested positive for the virus.
Responding to questions from the media during the first virtual press conference led by the COVID-19 Health Communications Team, the Minister reiterated that despite the increase in numbers, there was still capacity within the prison facility for isolation.
In addition, he noted that the upgraded medical facility, which was not part of the isolation centre, also had capacity because there were not a large number of sick persons. He further noted that there were persons due for discharge from isolation at HMP Dodds.
“You will recognise that over the next few days there will be inmates at the prison who will be discharged from isolation. So, that is how it is going to be managed in one sense, in that people may come in; people go out of isolation. That is what happens at all isolation facilities,” the Minister explained.
He added that there was ongoing work at the prison to ensure that the positive cases were isolated from the remainder of the population.
“We provided a Public Health Officer, who is there, and there are also persons from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital isolation facility that go daily and take care of these persons. “The team that is working with those inmates, those patients, is a very experienced team,” he said.
Stating that while the condition of inmates was not critical, the Health Minister noted that the large number of persons involved still made it a critical situation.
COVID-19 update and press conference – January 12th, 2021. (PMO) VIEW THE PRESS CONFERENCE BY CLICKING HERE …….
“It is a prison and that’s why we’ve added additional resources there from other institutions and entities to make sure that we have everything going at the prison as best as we can, at this time,” he said, stressing that giving inmates the best level of care was a priority.
Lieutenant Colonel Bostic stated that inmates were being cared for according to the same measures that were applied throughout the pandemic for those at the Harrison Point facility and Blackman Gollop, when it is stood up.
He reminded the public that the entire prison population was tested for the virus with positive results being returned for some on the first test, and for others on the second test.
Senior Medical Officer, Dr. Anton Best, explained that new cases were still being identified because persons were recently exposed, or were exposed within a 14-day period.
“We are not out of the woods yet …. From the beginning of this outbreak, we expected more inmates to become positive; we expected to detect moreprison officers who are positive,” he said, noting that efforts were being made to identify the positive cases and keep them isolated from those who were negative.
“What you are seeing is a result of these persons previously being exposed ….We are still within that period of possible exposure,” Dr. Best indicated.
JULIA RAWLINGS-BENTHAM of the BGIS
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Health Minister: Contact Tracing Bearing Fruit
Minister of Health and Wellness, Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Bostic, tonight gave a breakdown of a number of COVID-19 clusters on which public health officials have been focusing their contact tracing efforts.
The clusters, said the Health Minister, include the outbreak at Her Majesty’s Prisons Dodds, clusters on the West and South Coasts of the island, and the one associated with the bus crawl on Boxing Day, last year.
Giving further details, Lt. Col. Bostic explained that there are 86 positive cases that officials have identified from the West Coast cluster. Two persons, he pointed out, have been linked to 25 of these positive cases.
Also linked to this cluster is a bar with 27 positive cases; a Paradise Beach Lime, which has 18 associated positive cases; two restaurants with 11 and five cases, respectively; a catamaran cruise with seven positive cases; two hotels, one with six cases and the other with five; and other businesses, which account for approximately 33 positive persons.
Additionally, Minister Bostic said three persons from “a church in the north” have also tested positive, but contact tracing investigations revealed they were also linked to the cluster on the West Coast.
The other clusters he supplied figures for were the bus crawl cluster, which he said remained at 16 positive persons, and a South Coast cluster with four positive cases.
He added that up to yesterday, there were 253 primary contacts, which were being investigated by the Ministry’s contact tracing teams.
The Health Minister, however, urged Barbadians not to be alarmed at the numbers coming out of contact tracing.
“I just want to say that I know that when people hear large numbers, especially in Barbados, when we are not accustomed to having large numbers, they probably say ‘wuh loss’ to use a Barbadian parlance. I must tell you that I had my ‘wuh loss’ moment too. But that moment happened when, in the space of two days, we had 200 and something cases and I said ‘wuh loss’.
“But then I came to grips with the situation, and I no longer say that because we must understand that, having started with 200 cases or so in two days, with contact tracing and doing the work that is required, there will be cases and I am not going to sit here and fool you, we will have cases. But this has to happen as long as we are doing the contact tracing, and as long as we are doing what is required in order to contain the situation.”
While praising the job the “tracers” were doing on the ground, Lt. Col. Bostic emphasised that contact tracing was not just about finding an index case or “patient zero”.
He explained that finding the primary contacts was crucial to containing the spread of the viral illness.
“This is really germane to the effort to contain the situation, so that we can get back to some degree of normalcy that we enjoyed for nine or 10 months. We were doing very well until we reached this obstacle, but it’s an obstacle that we can overcome,” he maintained.
MELISSA ROLLOCK from the BGIS
