Barbados: Minister of Health and Wellness Lieutenant-Colonel Jeffrey Bostic informed that Barbados had recorded two new COVID related deaths after April 2020, with this total number of deaths due to COVID-19 goes to 9 in the country.
He said,” A policy decision has been taken that as long as a person who passes away and had respiratory symptoms and tests positive, that we’ve taken the conclusion that we would count that as a COVID death.”
The ninth death was an 83-year-old man presented at the Accident and Emergency (A&E) Department at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) on Monday. The man was further treated at the hospital on December 12, 2020, and sent home. Hours before he died, the family attempted to have him admitted to a nursing home. Bostic said contact tracing was commended but cautioned there was “no need for alarm and panic” because the nursing home exposure was limited to about 90 minutes.
The 84-year-old man who passed away on Sunday night after attending the QEH has ruled the eighth death after his test subsequently came back positive. Bostic said from that case, 17 tests were done for primary contacts, with 16 negative. The lone positive was linked to the West Coast cluster.
The Minister of Health said whether a vaccine was available or the new variant was in Barbados, Barbadians, and residents needed to follow the protocols to prevent the spread of viral illness.
“The evidence is clear that if we wear a mask when interacting with persons or in public spaces, that that significantly reduces the chance of getting COVID. And the mask is there to protect you from someone who may have COVID. You need to treat every person as though they have COVID and so follow the guidelines and the protocols that have been set out by the Ministry of Health and Wellness,” Bostic said.
