FEB 9, 2021 

There were 82 new positive cases of COVID-19 recorded on Monday, February, 8. These cases include positive results from January 29 to 31.

Situations like this may occur occasionally as the Best-dos Santos Public Health Laboratory continues to try to clear the backlog created due to the use of manual extraction in the processing of samples.

The Ministry of Health and Wellness is taking measures to have this issue rectified in the short term with the automated extractor reagent expected to arrive within a week.

The Laboratory conducted 545 tests yesterday and a total of 43 persons recovered and were discharged from isolation. This brings the number of active cases in Barbados to 324.

Two more persons were added to the list of those who have died from the viral illness – a 53 year-old woman and a 67-year-old man. Both of them suffered from chronic non-communicable diseases. The COVID-19 death toll now stands at 20.   

The 82 positive cases comprise 45 women and 37 men. Nine of them had already been at the Harrison Point Isolation Facility undergoing assessment to determine whether their positive PCR test result showed that they were in fact newly positive, or whether they had COVID-19 in the past and were no longer infectious.

The 73 other cases include 69 Barbadians and three non-nationals.

The total number of persons diagnosed as positive at Her Majesty’s Prisons Dodds increased to 363 after one male inmate tested positive for COVID-19. However, the majority of these cases have recovered and only four inmates remain in isolation.

To date, Barbados has recorded 1,814 confirmed cases – 763 females, 1,051 males – and 1,470 persons have recovered. The public health laboratory has completed 108,831 tests since February 2020.