BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (Friday 23rd April 2021)-“We continue to see complacency setting in, and persons getting a false sense of health security. We see this happening very frequently at parties, bars and other similar social activities.”
Such was reported by member of the COVID-19 National Task Force Superintendent Cromwell Henry when he spoke at the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC) COVID-19 Briefing held on Wednesday 21st April 2021.
He reminded members of the public that COVID-19 “remains a health threat to the Federation.”In addressing concern over the nature of interactions at social events, he went on to say: “These types of events and their very nature facilitate very easy spread of the virus should someone who is infected be present. Persons in these environments do not wear masks, they do not observe physical distancing, they do not practice good hand hygiene. Instead, they interact dangerously close with other persons who are not from their circle.
“Somehow persons are of the notion that everyone who enters the country are in quarantine so it is ok to socialize and ignore the protocols. While we do our best to ensure that persons who should be in quarantine are in fact in quarantine, we’ve had instances in the past and some of these instances were well publicized where persons whom we considered high risk found themselves socializing at crowded events,” Cromwell added.
Furthermore, he called on all individuals to do their part in helping to keep the country safe. “We continue our best to keep the country safe. However, we need you to be responsible by doing your part to help us keep us all safe. All that we are asking is that you follow the basic protocols that are prescribed in the COVID-19 regulations and they have kept us safe thus far. We have asked when in public avoid crowds and crowded events, practice good hand hygiene and maintain physical distance of six feet from others persons.”
Cromwell, encouraged individuals to take the COVID-19 vaccine.
“We are now in the vaccination phase of our journey to full opening or near normalcy. We encourage all to take advantage of this opportunity to be vaccinated and do your part to ensure that we have a safe and prosperous country.”
As of Wednesday 21st April, there were 44 recovered COVID-19 patients and zero in isolation along with 13,526 persons tested for the virus, 7869 released from quarantine, 229 released from quarantine and 3 in pre approved quarantine at home.