Barbados is experiencing a very “active phase” in the COVID-19 pandemic with daily positives or infections fluctuating between 4.2 and 9.2 per cent.
President of the Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners (BAMP) and epidemiologist, Dr. Lynda Williams, made the disclosure this evening as part of a panel of health officials discussing the introduction of the COVID-19 vaccine.
She explained that the positivity rate was the proportion of people who returned positive results out of tests that were conducted on a daily basis, and served as an indication of how the pandemic was progressing.
“It’s a good metric to look at in terms of measuring how well we’re doing. We have estimated that the positivity rate for Barbados varies between 4.2 and 9.2 per cent. We have been as high as 9.2 per cent from our estimates.
“We really want to see that positivity rate fall to less than 1.2 or 1.5 per cent. If we have a high positivity rate, we maintain a high positivity rate between nine and 10 per cent, it means that almost 10 per cent of the samples tested on a day-to-day basis are reflecting positive cases,” Dr. Williams stated.
The BAMP president said the country needed to work on decreasing transmission of the viral illness, and that an effective vaccination campaign would go a long way in achieving this goal.