Basseterre, St. Kitts, April 16, 2020 (SKNIS): Forty thousand (40,000) facial masks were handed over to the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis by His Excellency Tom Lee, Resident Ambassador of the Republic of China (Taiwan) to St. Kitts and Nevis at a brief but significant ceremony on Wednesday, April 15, 2020.

Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Honourable Mark Brantley, accepted the donation on behalf of the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis and noted that the masks will benefit the people of the Federation.

“The donation of these masks will go a long way in ensuring that our people have some of the protection that we are asking for, and then when our people practice social distancing and in addition, when they are required to be outside that they wear a mask,” said Minister Brantley. “And this, I think equips the government in a meaningful way to be able to provide this support to our people.”

The foreign affairs minister used the occasion to express thanks to the Government and people of the Republic of China (Taiwan) for the donation and noted that it was indeed a pleasure to receive the mask.

“…I thought it important enough that I be here as Minister of Foreign Affairs to speak to the Kittitian and Nevisian public and to convey to His Excellency so he can convey to the Government and people of Taiwan our deep appreciation for the solidarity and cooperation that your government and people continue to show to the Government and people of St. Kitts and Nevis,” said Minister Brantley.

Ambassador Lee said that his government was more than willing to assist St. Kitts and Nevis, especially during such a difficult time.

“At this very difficult time, Taiwan as a strong ally of St. Kitts and Nevis, we are very willing to share our masks with our brothers and sisters in St. Kitts and Nevis. Taiwan can help and Taiwan is helping,” said His Excellency Tom Lee. “These masks were produced in Taiwan and are very good quality. They are the same as what we have in Taiwan.”

Taiwan’s Ambassador reassured the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis “that Taiwan as a very true friend will continue to work closely” with the people “in the fight against COVID-19.”

BASSETERRE, St.Kitts (Tuesday 14^th April 2020)-The two latest coronavirus patients who got the illness from local spread- one of whom is a close contact of someone in isolation and the other a relative of a suspected case- were reportedly already in quarantine when their test results came back positive, taking the Federation’s count to 14 cases now.

At the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) COVID-19 Daily Briefing held on Tuesday 14^th April 2020, Junior Minister of Health Senator Wendy Phipps gave the fresh local update involving 12 samples sent to The Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) on Monday13^th April.

“These are from persons of 12 contacts who were already placed on quarantine when their contacts received the confirmation of their tests results. The results were received today –in very quick time-and of the 12 tests, 10 were negative and 2 were positive. These persons tested positive were already in quarantine and will remain in isolation as of per our protocol that has been put in place from the very beginning,” she said.

Phipps added: “These two cases reside on St.Kitts and of these two cases, one was a close contact of a positive case and was already in quarantine as stated earlier. The second one, however, is a family member of a suspected case already in quarantine and…these two positive cases represent the local spread of the virus within that household; it doesn’t say within our community…”

The Junior  Health Minister said all 14 patients are doing well.

“We continue with our vigorous contact tracing and quarantine and isolation procedures in order to keep the virus under control and we continue to stress the importance of personal responsibility in our efforts to control this disease. We are thankful, however, that all of the positive cases are doing well and recovering, and that we have had no hospital admissions or deaths with regards to COVID-19.”

To date 234 persons have been tested with the 14 positive results; 10 are in St.Kitts and 4 on Nevis.

A total of 187 confirmed negatives have been received with some 33 results still pending.

Additionally, 20 persons are quarantined in a government facility while 111 are quarantined at home, 14 in isolation and 552 persons released from quarantined.

“…these two positive cases represent the local spread of the virus within that household; it doesn’t say within our community…”- Junior Minister of Health Senator Wendy Phipps

BASSETERRE, St.Kitts (Tuesday 14^th April 2020)-Individuals accused of playing ‘cat and mouse’ with the police during curfew hours under the current state of emergency of emergency regarding COVID-19 (novel coronavirus) are being asked by  Superintendent Cromwell Henry to stop it or else face the punishment.

“We are still in the 24-hour curfew period which means that persons must remain in their homes. In a few communities, we find persons are playing ‘cat and mouse’ with the police. They would congregate in the streets or on the sidewalks and would run through alleys or in their yard when the police approaches, and then as soon as the police leave they come back out on the street. This is not very amusing to the police, and persons caught in these circumstances will be prosecuted, “he stated at the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) COVID-19 Daily Briefing held on Tuesday 14^th April 2020.

“Again, we urge persons to comply with the terms of the curfew to stay in your residence including your yard and avoid being found on the street unless of course you have a very good reason; be it a medical emergency, you are an essential worker or you have special exemption from the Commissioner of Police,” he further encouraged. Superintendent Henry informed that to date, there has been sixty (60) arrests of persons who have violated the curfew and that 39 of them have been charged.