BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - THE Ministry of Health in Basseterre has refuted suggestions that the recent death of a foreign nurse was linked to the COVID-19 Vaccine she reportedly received.
Reports and suggestions making rounds on social media point to a nurse from the Philippines, who was in the Federation for some time, died after receiving her first dose of the AstraZeneca Vaccine earlier this week.
It was also suggested that she suffered a blood clot.
However, in a media statement Tuesday (Apr. 13) afternoon, the Ministry said Nurse Arceo’s “untimely passing is poignantly regrettable and contrary to the falsehood being circulated, is entirely unrelated to the administration of the COVID-19 Vaccine”.
The death of Josephine Arceo and the rumours being circulated have raised questions on how the Government is seeking to combat the growing concerns about misinformation and having more of the population vaccinated, though there is a high rate of reluctance.
“The misinformation being circulated on social media relative to her demise, is therefore extremely unfortunate and sadly, is completely devoid of the requisite empathy for someone who has given so much in service of our country,” the Ministry noted.
The Ministry expressed its deepest sympathies to her family, friends and the local community.
Nurse Arceo was attached to the maternity unit of the JNF General Hospital as a specialty nurse for four years, “and she will long be remembered by the nursing fraternity as a staunch advocate for childbearing women and mothers and an effusively warm and highly skilled midwife as she guided and cared for women and families through pregnancy, labour and after birth”.
