Chief Medical Officer Dr. Hazel Laws reported on Sunday, April 05, that there has been no local transmission of COVID-19 confirmed in St. Kitts and Nevis.
Dr. laws stated:
local transmission is the term that is used to describe when the virus is transmitted between two or more persons who have not left the local community or the federation in the case of St. Kitts and Nevis. It means that the virus is being passed between persons locally who have not travelled themselves and who have not had direct contact with a person who travelled back from a destination with an outbreak
According to CMO Laws, the source of the infection is within the federation. As, the term community transmission cannot be used to describe our situation at present. Her statement is based on the information they have to date.
She further lamented:
It is evidenced by the inability to relate confirmed cases through chains of transmission for a large number of cases or by increasing number of positive tests through routine testing from our laboratories. Again, this term cannot be used to describe the outbreak as we see it on the ground at present.
Community transmission is the term used to describe the period in an outbreak with increasing large numbers based on the World Health Organization, (WHO).
Presently in St. Kitts and Nevis, there are 10 confirmed cases of COVID-19. To date 183 persons have been tested with 10 confirmed positive 114 confirmed negative and 59 results pending. No casualties have been recorded.
There are currently 34 persons quarantined in a government facility, while 215 persons are quarantined at home.
Ten persons are in isolation. To date 249 persons have been released from quarantine.
In essence we have 10 confirmed cases. Eight of these cases are imported cases and two of these cases appear to be import related and they are under investigation. One had indirect contact with someone in quarantine who returned from an area with COVID-19 outbreak and the other had direct and close contact with tourists from the United States of America.
Of the ten confirmed cases seven are symptom free and recovering while one has mild symptoms and continue to improve.
The other two are hospitalized in Nevis, but stable.
