COID-19 Updates: Thursday, 23 April 2020

One more death, one new case in Barbados

Barbados has recorded its sixth death related to COVID-19. The health ministry said the victim is a 70-year-old diabetic from another CARICOM country who resided in Barbados. He became infected by a known case who had travelled abroad.

According to the health officials, the man was diagnosed and admitted into isolation on 1 April and died around 9:00 yesterday morning.

Meanwhile, after six days without a new infection, a 66-year-old woman has become the 76 person to test positive for COVID-19 in Barbados.

Health officials said the woman contracted the virus after being in contact with a known case on 14 April.

Grenada confirms 15th COVID-19 case

An intensive prove is under way in Grenada in an effort to determine how the country's 15 confirmed coronavirus case contracted the virus.

The health minister, George Mitchell, said in a statement late yesterday that results of a series of tests done on the 45-year-old man had confirmed that he was indeed positive.

Mitchell had announced on Tuesday that the man had been hospitalised with COVID-19 symptoms and was being treated as though he had been infected and was the first case of local transmission. The individual had no travel history.

In his statement yesterday the minister said it still wasn't clear how the man contracted COVID-19.

"Until now, all confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Grenada have been imported or import-related. This current individual in question, has no travel history and currently, officials are yet to determine whether he has been in contact with any of the previously confirmed cases," Mitchell said.

He indicated that health officials had been in discussions with the man's employer, and employees had been asked to self-isolate.

"We have already commenced testing of every known contact of the individual, including his fellow employees, in keeping with our contact tracing protocol. In the days ahead, these efforts will continue," he said.

"While we have treated every case or possibility of a case, as profoundly serious, this particular one calls for increased vigilance in the immediate. Again, we are yet to determine where this individual contracted the virus," Mitchell added.

One more COVID-19 related death in Guadeloupe

Guadeloupe's regional public health authority, agence régionale de santé (ARS) announced that another person has died from the coronavirus, the tenth person to succumb to the virus there since the first case was confirmed on 13 March.

In its latest update today, ARS said the victim was an elderly man with underlying conditions and no travel history.

"We regret a new death today. He is a 75-year-old man who had been hospitalised since March 31 with [underlying conditions]. He hadn't travelled," ARS said.

The French Caribbean overseas department has confirmed 149 cases, 82 of whom have since recovered.

Meanwhile, Martinique has recorded ten new cases since its last update on Friday.

ARS said today there are now 170 confirmed cases, 14 of whom have died and six in intensive care.

Over half of COVID-19 cases in Jamaica come from workplace clusters

The workplace has been one of the largest contributors to a rapid rise in coronavirus cases in Jamaica, with over half of the total number of those infected happening at work.

A release from the National Influenza Centre today stated that has reported that seven of the 19 positive tests received in the past 24 hours are associated with the workplace cluster. The 19 positive samples brings the number of confirmed cases in Jamaica 252. Less than two weeks ago, on 15 April, there were just 73 confirmed infections.

"There are now 131 confirmed COVID-19 cases related to the workplace cluster. Their ages range from 18 to 52 years. They include 104 females and 27 males," health officials said in the release. Thy are primarily from the south-eastern parishes of St Catherine and St. Andrew, and the capital, Kingston, the influenza centre said.

The health departments across the island are ctracing 1,409 close contacts of the confirmed cases, officials revealed.

12th COVID-19 death added to list in St. Maarten

St. Maarten has revised the death toll from COVID-19 upwards, after it was discovered that a man who died recently had been infected with the virus.

The prime minister, Silveria Jacobs, said in a statement last night that after the cause of death was determined to be uncertain, the decision was taken to conduct a post-mortem COVID-19 test, which came back positive.

This brings the number of coronavirus-related fatalities in the Dutch Caribbean country to 12.

Jacobs added that as of 4 pm yesterday, there were 73 confirmed cases, two more than the previous day.

"No evidence of community transmission" in SVG

Health authorities in St. Vincent and the Grenadines are seeking to quell speculation of community transmission of the coronavirus in the multi-island nation.

Following confirmation of a new case on Tuesday – bringing the total count to 13 – Vincentians began to speculate about how the individual was infected.

The health ministry has now issued a press release stressing there's no evidence of community transmission, although the chief medical officer, Dr Simone Keizer, has stated that local transmission was a possibility.

"Ongoing preliminary investigations into the new case point to a possible local transmission, since the individual in question has no known travel history," the ministry quoted Beache as saying.

However, it sort to make the distinction between the two forms of transmission, explaining that community spread refers to instances where several people in a community test positive for COVID-19 without any known contact with an imported case, while local spread describes a situation where the person was never abroad, but was exposed to an imported case, so that the source of the infection can be identified.

There was no information about the latest case, which brought the number of confirmed positive results to 13. Of these, three have recovered.

-By Johnson JohnRose