In the weekly Government press conference held on Monday, July 5th, the Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Dr. Aisha Andrewin, revealed that, up to that time, over one thousand visitors had been processed successfully since the island opened with less restraint to vaccinated travellers on July 1st. They were all tested, and all but two were given a clean bill of health relative to Covid-19 infection.
The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Mr. Foster Rogers, thanked the port health staff and the staff in the lab at the hospital for their efficient service: “When we opened on July 1st,” he said, “we had 466 persons who came in. They were cleared in record time at the ports — both the airport and the seaports. The majority came through the seaport and, after being cleared, they were able to go to their places of accommodation and residence. Based on the protocol, they would have had to be stationed at these sites for some twenty-four hours, until they would have gotten their test results.
“We completed those 466 PCR tests of Thursday’s visitors by 2 o’clock on Friday morning. He noted that most of the visitors were able to get their results before they went to bed on Thursday night:
“We were able to pick up those positive results quite early. “That is the reason why we must do our testing, so that we are able to isolate persons with positive conditions at an early stage. Then we would be able to properly do our treatment protocols.”
Mr. Rogers continued: “We are thankful for the advice which we have gotten from Public Health England. Since we have not gotten up to our ideal vaccination levels as yet, we still must continue doing our testing, and our isolation, to ensure that we are still ‘on the ball’ as far as our national health is concerned.”
Meanwhile, the CMO stated: “Again I would like to reiterate that Public Health England data shows that it is more important now, more than ever, not just to just get one dose of the two-dose vaccine, but to go ahead and take the two doses as this is the way to stop the new variants from immerging.”
She said the cry for vaccines, today, can be heard all around the world because people realise how important it is to be fully protected against the virus.
– Staff Reporter, James R. Harrigan
