PAHO concerned about region's capacity to deal with coronavirus
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados CMC – The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is expressing some level of concern at the region's ability to deal with an outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) that has claimed nearly 3,000 lives globally.
PAHO director, Dominican-born Dr Carissa F Etienne, reporting to the eighth special emergency meeting of Caribbean Community (Caricom) heads of government and ministers of health here on Sunday night, acknowledged that some countries may have a problem delaing with the virus because of weak health systems.
Dr Etienne said that of the 60 countries that have reported cases worldwide, there are three cases in the Dominican Republic, two cases in St Maarten, and one case in St Barts.
“... Therefore, there is a high likelihood that we will see cases in the subregion; it's already here,” she said via video conference at the end of the meeting's press conference.
“The World Health Organization does have great concern for the situation in some countries, particularly those countries with weak health systems,” Dr Etienne said, adding that in the Caribbean, several countries have the capacity to test for COVID-19.
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