The second in a series of town hall meetings on COVID-19 vaccinations and testing was held at the Princess Margaret Secondary School, Six Cross Roads, St. Philip last evening. (C. Pitt/BGIS)

Manager of Quarantine Facilities, Alvin Hart, has touted Barbados’ success in the fight against COVID-19 by its focus on all of the components and measures to reduce and control the spread of the virus.  

He was speaking during the second in a series of town hall meetings on COVID-19 vaccinations and testing at the Princess Margaret Secondary School, Six Cross Roads, St. Philip last evening.  He reminded the online and in-person audiences that in the absence of vaccines, Government’s focus in the first year of the pandemic was on infection control, mask-wearing, good hygiene practices, the quarantining of persons who may be exposed to the virus, isolation, and testing.  

 “Those measures have brought us to the point where we are.  The vaccine is another weapon to this arsenal.  Someone asked earlier ‘are we going to stop mask-wearing?’ No, it has worked for us.  What we are doing is adding weapons to the arsenal to reduce and control the spread of COVID-19 in Barbados,” he underlined.

The Manager of Quarantine Facilities pointed out that the Ministry of Health and Wellness had stated that persons don’t “have to take the vaccine”, but implored Barbadians to work with authorities in keeping all of the preventative measures in place.

“So, vaccines are not the end-all of it when it comes to controlling the spread of COVID-19.  I see people every day coming into quarantine.  And I agree with my colleague that people need to understand what we see every day.  People are afraid…. People want to know where I got it from.  I was only in the bar….  I was only liming….  I was only at a fete.  But you are seeing entire families and only today (yesterday) I saw an entire family of positive results and four of them were over the age of 60,” Mr. Hart stressed.

He continued: “They didn’t go anywhere, someone brought it to them.  So, we have to really think; sit down and take stock of where we are as a people because we cannot go anywhere unless each one of us plays our part in fighting this game of COVID-19.”

julie.carrington@barbados.gov.bb

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