St. Vincent and the Grenadines on Thursday confirmed forty-eight (48) new COVID-19 cases. Four of the cases arrived with negative PCR results and tested positive on entry screening.
All of the other forty-four cases are nationals with no history of recent travel. These cases were detected during contact tracing, testing of persons with flu-like symptoms and exit screening.
There are now two-hundred and fifty-five (255) local cases under investigation. Four (4) clusters associated with churches, four (4) with work sites and two (2) with holiday parties have been identified.
Contact tracing, testing, quarantining and isolation continue, and are aimed at containing this COVID-19 outbreak in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. However, contact tracing is being hampered by the unwillingness of some persons to provide accurate information.
The strict compliance with quarantine and isolation is even more important now in order to suppress any further spread of this viral illness. Persons who have been instructed to quarantine while awaiting their results, must not leave their quarantine sites until they receive their tests results.
One hundred and seven (107) persons have recovered and two hundred and eighty- one (281) cases remain active. There are currently seventeen (17) COVID-19 patients admitted for care. A total of three hundred and eighty-eight (388) cases of COVID-19 have been reported in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. All positive cases will continue to be isolated until cleared.
The recommendations for the conduct of mass gatherings as issued on January 8, 2021, restricting the number of persons in an indoor gathering to ten (10) and an outdoor gathering to twenty (20), will be extended to January 25th, 2021.
All of the other protocols and recommendations designed to safeguard the health and wellbeing of the Vincentian public, including those for the use of masks in all government buildings, must continue to be followed.
