BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – FOLLOWING the Government’s discovery of the new UK strain of the COVID-19 virus in Barbados, and with case numbers rising, Prime Minister Mia Mottley has confirmed that the island would be shutting down for two weeks in February.
Currently, health officials on the island have recorded a significant uptick in the number of confirmed cases, with data showing at least 800 positive cases for the month of January with 12 confirmed deaths.
With that in mind, the Prime Minister explained that the new curfew would begin on February 3 through February 17 from 7:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., with non-essential businesses shutting shop during that period.
Among those businesses highlighted by the Prime Minister are supermarkets, pharmacies and gas stations.
The latest numbers provided yesterday (Jan. 27) by health officials showed 353 active cases with a total of 12 deaths.
Mottley explained that the new measures to be implemented is one means of combating the spread of the virus and resetting the island, as the UK strain was discovered in samples sent to the Caribbean Public Health Agency.
“The country needs to pause and to that extent, therefore, even though there are things that you will still be permitted to do and timelines you may still have access to between now and February 3,” she added.
Barbados has joined Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and St. Lucia as territories that currently have cases of the new strain which has a 70 percent contagion rate.
