Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley’s COVID-19 Update – January 1, 2021. (PMO)

The Ministry of Health and Wellness has embarked on an aggressive contact tracing exercise, as it seeks to contain the spread of COVID-19.

And Acting Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Kenneth George, is appealing to members of the public to cooperate with personnel.

This comes in light of investigations into the latest confirmed cases, which involve members of the Barbados Prison Service and the Barbados Defence Force, some of whom attended a bus crawl on December 26, 2020. 

During a televised statement last night, Dr. George said the Ministry’s Emergency Operations Centre was fully engaged, and running its 24-hour operation.

He further noted that several teams had been identified to assist with the contact tracing effort, given the serious nature of the situation. They would be guided by medical personnel.

“Over 100 persons will be involved, including medical staff, environmental health officers, nursing staff and even medical record clerks,” Dr. George revealed.

Reiterating that contact tracing was “the systematic way of finding every single individual associated with a case” of the viral illness, the acting Chief Medical Officer urged persons to be forthcoming with information when called upon, and to voluntarily share critical details with health authorities.

Dr. George also provided an update on the health status of persons linked to the recent super spreader event, who have been placed in insolation at the facility at Harrison Point, St. Lucy.

“Currently, there are 48 persons in total in isolation…;12 of those individuals are in primary, but the majority- 32 are in tertiary. When you’re in tertiary, it simply means you are mainly asymptomatic, or have no symptoms. So therefore still for Barbados, over 80 per cent of the cases we have been seeing are asymptomatic,” he stated.

The acting Chief Medical Officer also assured the public that authorities would continue to provide updates on the situation, including the ongoing contact tracing exercise.

nya.phillips@barbados.gov.bb

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