Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley and Minister of Health & Wellness, Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Bostic address the nation – September 9, 2021. (PMO)

The Best-dos Santos Public Health Laboratory no longer has a backlog of COVID-19 test results.

Minister of Health and Wellness, Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Bostic, made the announcement this afternoon during an address to the nation by Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley.

“I’m also happy to report that the Best-dos Santos lab is now in a position, where currently, there are no samples or results pending and we’re able to get out the results to those persons who require results in a timely fashion.

“So, at this point in time, we are able to manage.  But I’m saying that we have a lot to do in order to get the numbers down; get the positivity rate down and the cumulative incident rate down,” he stated.

Mr. Bostic explained that newly confirmed COVID-19 infections continue to show a steady increase, adding that this was as a result of the ongoing community transmission, as well as the circulation of the highly transmissible Delta variant.

He also disclosed that the number of children contracting the virus was a “serious development” and cause for concern. Of the 78 new cases reported for Wednesday, September 8, 17 of them were under the age of 18.

Additionally, while Barbados had achieved a cumulative incidence threshold of 25 cases per 100,000 population previously, Mr. Bostic said in the last 28 days that number had increased exponentially to 368 per 100,000, and over the last 14 days to 287 per 100,000.

The Health Minister said that although Government was managing the recent surge in cases with the resources it has, it was acutely aware that it wasn’t only the virus that it had to deal with, but the entire health care system.

He asked for patience from Barbadians when they experienced delays, since authorities had to deploy personnel to various facilities when COVID-positive cases were admitted.

Mr. Bostic added that in spite of the level of positive cases health officials were encountering, they were still able to quarantine primary contacts and “get all of the positive cases within a 24-hour period” to avoid any overlap.

melissa.rollock@barbados.gov.bb

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