BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - HEALTH officials in St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) are working to combat the growing spread of COVID-19 in the country after their contact tracing efforts confirmed 103 positive cases.
SVG, like several other territories around the region, has been seeing a major outbreak of the deadly virus since the year began, which is due in part to a number of cluster cases in the respective territories.
In a statement, the Ministry of Health explained that the 103 new COVID-19 cases were based on samples collected between January 21 and February 3.
In fact, it was revealed that all of the new cases were detected during contact tracing, routine screening and testing of persons with flu symptoms.
“Many of the cases are clustered in families and small social groups including patrons of gambling sheds and rum shops. There are now one thousand and twenty-one (1021) local cases of COVID-19,” the statement said.
The Governments of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados, St. Lucia and Grenada have all implemented varying measures that were described as not being strict enough to prevent an outbreak of the virus following the reopening of their respective borders.
From five days mandatory quarantine to non-policing of quarantine facilities, to escaping of visitors during quarantine period were some of the slack policies being blamed for the rapid spike in COVID-19 cases in some territories.
In its break of the numbers in SVG, the Ministry of Health announced that there were 39 recoveries and 377 overall.
However, some 790 cases remain active with three COVID-19 deaths on record.
“One thousand, one hundred and seventy (1170) cases of COVID-19 have been reported in St. Vincent and the Grenadines since March 2020. All positive cases will remain isolated until cleared,” the statement added.
