BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, (CMC) — The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) says it is working with health ministries in Latin America and the Caribbean to help them prepare to deal with possible importations of cases of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).

PAHO said that experts in laboratories, preparedness, epidemiology, clinical management, infection prevention and control, and other areas are supporting public health officials in various countries through a series of technical cooperation activities.

In the area of diagnosis, PAHO said it is providing guidance and reagents to national public health laboratories, including National Influenza Centres, “so they can perform laboratory tests to confirm or discard the presence of novel coronavirus”.

It said that Suriname, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, and Ecuador have already implemented the 2019 novel coronavirus protocol.

In the next two weeks, 29 national laboratories in the Americas, including the Caribbean, will have the capacity to run these tests, according to Dr Jarbas Barbosa, PAHO’s assistant director.

PAHO said it is also providing guidance for hospitals in the form of readiness checklists “to ensure they are prepared to receive potential patients with coronavirus, including guidance for clinicians, infection prevention and control, isolation measures, and clinical management of severe acute respiratory infection when a novel coronavirus infection is suspected”.

Since the novel coronavirus outbreak was first reported by China, PAHO said there have been more than 28,000 laboratory-confirmed cases of 2019-nCoV infection and 565 deaths globally, almost all of these in China.

PAHO said there are no confirmed cases in Latin America and the Caribbean and that advice has also been developed on key topics, including use of masks during home care and in health care settings in the context of the outbreak, clinical management, infection prevention and control in health care settings, home care for patients with suspected novel coronavirus, risk communication and community engagement.

An “essential list” of biomedical equipment, medicines and supplies necessary to care for patients with 2019-nCoV has been distributed, and the World Health Organization (WHO) has published updated advice for international traffic in relation to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV,“ PAHO said.

Meanwhile, the Barbados Government has defended its decision not to enforce a ban on passengers coming out of China as health authorities here categorically denied that there had been cases of coronavirus insisting that “no business has been closed” as a result of the virus.

Health and Wellness Minister Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Bostic said the decision was taken based on evidence.

“We have at the moment six territories in the Caribbean that have either fully banned persons from coming out of China or placed a ban on non-nationals, with the intent of quarantining nationals who are coming out of these places.

“There was some discussion there, and of course, it was agreed that this is more than a health decision. There are other things involved,” Bostic said in reference to the meeting of Caricom health ministers earlier this week on the issue.

“We in Barbados made the determination based on evidence, science, past history, on everything that we have seen happening and evolving over the last several weeks – that we were not going to go that route.

“But we would follow the WHO’s (World Health Organization’s) instructions and PAHO’s (Pan American Health Organization’s) not to inhibit trade or travel, but to significantly enhance our regime at the airport in terms of surveillance.”

He said he is confident that “given the layers of screening that have to take place before people get here and our ability to provide this coverage here in Barbados that we can make determinations that they [will] keep this country as safe as possible. And, that is what we have been doing”.

Bostic said that the efforts by China to contain the virus had been comprehensive and in a sense, China was on quarantine from airlines and other places and therefore this restricted their travel in a significant way.

“The fact that we do not have a direct flight from China is another layer of coverage in the sense that people coming from China, for example, must go through either Europe or North America, in order to get here.  And, those countries are doing a fairly good job in terms of screening.  So, that is why we have taken those decisions.

“There have been about a dozen international incidents in terms of public health over the last 50 years or so, and Barbados has never closed its borders, not even for Ebola. And, we relied on our people and the competence and collaborative nature of the people who we have at the ports of entry to be able to keep the country safe and we are confident with that,” Bostic added.