Minister of Health and Wellness Jeffrey Bostic said the cluster of COVID-19 positive cases connected to the World Harvest Church in St Peter continues to be of great concern to officials in his ministry.
Bostic said nine of the 12 new cases identified among 576 tests conducted by the Best-dos Santos Public Health Laboratory on Thursday are “related directly and indirectly with the church cluster”.
“Directly because there are two families from the north comprising four and three members each that were connected to this church and tested positive,” he said during a government virtual media briefing on Friday.
“And then there was a family of two indirectly connected because they were connected directly with one of the other institutions that was impacted by this church cluster.”
He said: “Although these figures and stats are low, my concern and the concern of the ministry is that they are all connected to this church cluster.
“This is a cluster that is occupying our attention more than anything else in the Ministry of Health and Wellness in our fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Bostic said there were others connected to the church that health officials want to come forward and be tested.
“I appeal all persons associated with the church in the north and that cluster, if you have not yet been contacted by Ministry of Health officials, it is because (1) we have not been told of your exposure and (2) in cases where we have been told, we have not been able to find you because I would have to say that you are hiding,” he said.
“Now this is a serious thing. It is a serious thing because we cannot afford to slip up. We cannot afford to slip up. And even if you do not care about your own health and wellness and well-being, I care. The Ministry of Health cares. The government of Barbados, we care.
“And so, we want to find you because if you remain in hiding. If you remain knowing that you have symptoms and you present too late, it could be detrimental to your health. I appeal to you to come forward and present to Wildey gymnasium testing site for your sake, for your family’s sake, for your community’s sake and for the country’s sake.”
Bostic used the opportunity to once more appeal to citizens and residents of Barbados to continue to observe all COVID-19 protocols to control the spread of the viral illness.
“I would like to really make an appeal to all Barbadians, since this has always been and was always intended to be an all-society approach [to the pandemic],” he said.
“I make the appeal because we have always stated that the ministry, in spite of all of its efforts, in spite of all of its technical expertise, which we have, and in spite of all of the experience we have been able to gather, we cannot do it alone.
“We depend on every citizen and resident of this country to work with us to be able to contain the spread of COVID-19 in Barbados.”
There are now 77 people in isolation and recoveries from the viral illness now stand at 3,648, as 10 people were discharged.
Since the start of the pandemic, Barbados has recorded 3,765 confirmed cases of the viral illness – 1,833 women and 1,932 men – out of the 147,866 tests conducted by the Laboratory. There have been 44 COVID-19 related deaths.
To date, 66,900 vaccinations – 27,600 men and 38,300 women – have been administered under the national vaccination programme for COVID-19.
(AR)
