BASSETERRE, St.Kitts (Friday 17th April 2020)-To date, the local COVID-19 team has been indicating that all fourteen (14) patients have been doing, and members of the public continue to be curious as to what is happening with regard to actual illness recovery details.
Medical Chief of Staff at the Joseph N. France General Hospital Dr. Cameron Wilkinson has pointed out that “a very stringent programme” in place-which includes two negative results- before a patient is fits the status of being fully recovered.
He made the disclosure at the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) COVID-19 Daily Briefing special edition held on Wednesday 15th April 2020.
“In the United States, for example, once a person has gone 72 hours without any symptoms, you might hear them say that they are recovered. But because we know that the virus, even though you’re symptom free can still be present at very low levels and although your ability to transmit the virus might be low at that point in time, our policy is to wait until fourteen (14) days after you have no symptoms and retest you and see if you get two negative tests. We have not proclaimed that anybody has recovered as yet even though they are all doing well,” Dr. Wilkinson shared.
As Thursday 16th April, 243 persons had been tested with the 14 confirmed cases, 199 confirmed negative and 30 results pending with 0 deaths recorded.
No one was quarantined in a government facility while 84 persons were quarantined at home, and the 14 patients in isolation and a total of 608 persons released from quarantine.
“There is a chance that individuals can experience relapse and so we have to be careful in so doing,” chimed in Chief Medical Officer Dr. Hazel Laws.
Public Relations Officer of the NEOC Dr. Marissa Carty is advising individuals to be safe during the partial curfew days.
“Please be reminded that as you venture out on the partial curfew days adhere to all safety guidelines including wearing masks in public, sanitising your hand regularly, coughing or sneezing into the curve of the elbow or into a rag or tissue and dispose of it appropriately and practice the physical distance measures of at least six feet between persons. If we work together we will overcome together.’