This country’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Kenneth George ( pictured above ), has reported a steady rise in all of the COVID-19 indices, and pleads with Barbadians to help health authorities stem the tide of rising infections.
By Julie Carrington — BGIS
SEP 29, 2021
This country’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Kenneth George, has reported a steady rise in all of the COVID-19 indices, and pleads with Barbadians to help health authorities stem the tide of rising infections.
He told the nation during a televised press briefing to update on the COVID-19 situation, that the COVID trajectory continues to show a steady increase in newly confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2 infections.
Dr. George further stated that the overall risk of transmission in the country was “very high” and he confirmed that there was “ongoing community transmission and circulation of highly transmissible variants, which is the Delta variant”.
The Chief Medical Officer added: “All our indices all are trending upwards. Our effective reproductive number is 1.48, which means that 10 individuals can very likely transmit the virus to 15 persons. We have a seven-day cumulative average of 641…a 14-day cumulative average of 655 infections per 100,000 population, and we also have a 28-day cumulative average of 160 infections per 100,000 population.”
He continued: “The positivity rate and all our indicators are trending upwards. Yesterday [Wednesday] we exceeded 200 positive cases in a 24-hour period. The age distribution of those positive cases were: 22 per cent of those individuals were under the age of 18, and in that group, 60 per cent of that group was under the age of 12. The median age of infection is 46 years old and this morning I learnt that we have another death a 52-year-old male, who died very early this morning in Harrison’s Point.”
Dr. George reminded Barbadians that health and ministry officials were committed to the fight and implored citizens to meet them halfway in the fight.
He remarked that losing a person at 52, given the 74 years’ life expectancy for men in Barbados, was a loss of over 20 years of life. “So, the decisions are in your hands and we would hope that you take heed and move forward with us on this journey,” he said.
