BASSETERRE, St.Kitts (Friday 31st July 2020)-Chief Medical Officer Dr. Hazel Laws has delivered three areas of good news relative to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in sharing two positive highlights for St.Kitts-Nevis as well as recent development in the Caribbean region.
“This afternoon I have good news. We have 16 of our cases have now recovered. We only have one active case present. The patient continues to do well and stable, recovering nicely,” she informed at the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) COVID-19 Daily Briefing on Wednesday 29th July 2020.
As gathered, in St.Kitts-Nevis, “1006 persons have been tested and so this is good.”
Dr. Laws said: “To date, we’ve tested all those persons who were suspected of having COVID-19 along with their contacts and so the number tested 1006.”
She disclosed that there are 50 persons quarantined at government designated facilities and one person in isolation
Concerning returning nationals, the CMO commented: “We continue to accept our nationals who’ve requested repatriation and so at present we have 51 nationals in quarantine 35 in St.Kitts and 16 in Nevis. Between 24th April and today July the 29th, a total of 145 nationals have returned to the Federation in the context of COVID-19, 93 females and 52 males.”
In regard to the international scene, Dr. Laws stated that as at last Friday July the 24th, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported the largest single day increase in the number of cases since the pandemic started at the beginning of this year.
“So last Friday, we saw an increase in the number of cases. The increase was as much as 284, in just 24 hours. Now the biggest increases were seen in the United States of America, Brazil, India and South Africa. As at today July 29th, the total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 is now over 16 million 500 thousand cases. If you were to calculate the difference between last Wednesday to this week Wednesday, there is an increase of two million.”
Additionally, she pointed out that last week, it was 14 million 500 thousand and that in terms of the death toll, it is now at 656, 093 cases.
Dr. Laws said further that the number of cases in US is 4,380,871 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and in terms of the death toll over 149,000 cases.
In addressing the Caribbean region, the CMO told that for last situation report Caribbean Public Health Agency’s (CARPHA), dated 27th July 2020, the total number of confirmed cases is now over 100,000 and that there has been 44,298 recoveries and the death toll is 1,705.
According to her: “Now, this is good news for the Caribbean region because if you were to calculate the death rate or the fatality rate within the Caribbean region, it’s at about 1.7 and that is a little lower than the global or international rate and I hope that this trend continues.”
“Now, based on the latest report coming out of CARPHA, the report states that the risk of further cases occurring in the Caribbean continues to be very high,” she, however, noted.
After more than seventy (70) days without any active case announcement, St.Kitts-Nevis recorded a new patient having the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) after a citizen returned home from the United States of America as revealed at a NEOC Briefing held on Saturday 4th July 2020 about the patient who landed on 19th June 2020 from Washington DC in the USA.
Then on Friday 10th July, an additional case of COVID-19 was recorded taking the total to 17 confirmed positive cases as a frontline healthcare worker who would have provided care to the previously announced case got infected.