ST GEORGE’S, Grenada (CMC) – Health Minister Nicholas Steele says that almost one month after shutting down the Maurice Bishop International Airport to commercial passenger traffic, the minister has confirmed that one of three people who tested positive for COVID-19 is an asymptomatic carrier who, according to World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, must be classified as an imported case.

According to the WHO, an imported case is when a person travelled to another country with the infection and is tested with a positive result in that country.

As of Saturday, the number of people to test positive for the virus is 18, since the first case was confirmed and publicly disclosed on March 22. However, only 17 are on the island, as one person returned to the United Kingdom without medical permission.

Speaking during a news conference on Saturday, Steele said that so far, seven of the individuals have now been medically cleared and classified as recovered while seven others are active.

The three new cases are described as stabilised with mild or no symptoms.

The asymptomatic import patient is a 50-year-old female who came from one of the international hot spots or epicentres with the virus.

“She is an import-related case, and is what is known as an asymptomatic carrier. She has displayed no symptoms, to date,” said Steele who explained that the individual had remained in quarantine for the required period of 14 days but decided to be tested to confirm her medical status because of the location from which she travelled.

The other two new individuals are males – ages 62 and 59 and they were found through contact tracing in the workplace of one person who tested positive – which is a possible community transmission as he has had no recent travel history and was not associated with any of the already confirmed cases.

Sharing details of the work being done by the medical team working to trace all those who may have interacted with confirmed patients, Steele said the team continues to aggressively pursue any and all possible contacts of positive individuals.

“In the last week, they have concentrated their efforts on several areas, including the residential community of the 15th case, and his workplace, which has become a focal point of the investigation,” he said.

So far, health officials have conducted a total of approximately 175 tests, and in excess of 1,000 rapid tests, representing different sectors of the population.

Dr Francis Martin, acting chief medical officer says that all individuals seeking medical attention at the casualty department, especially if they are displaying flu-like symptoms, are being tested for COVID-19.