St Vincent, Guyana record COVID deaths
KINGSTOWN, St Vincent (CMC)— St Vincent and the Grenadines has recorded its 11th death from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic as other Caribbean Community (Caricom) countries also registered deaths and new cases of the virus among their populations over the past 24 hours.
The National Emergency Management Organisation (NEMO) said an 87-year-old man died of the illness while in isolation at the Argyle Isolation Facility. It gave no further information about the case in its regular bulletin.
NEMO said that five new COVID-19 positive cases were reported from 32 samples processed on Sunday, resulting in a positivity rate of 15.6 per cent. It said no new recoveries were recorded leaving the number of total recoveries at 1,711.
There are 122 cases currently active of the 1,844 cases of COVID-19 confirmed here since March 2020.
“The public is urged to continue to use masks, sanitize, physically distance and get vaccinated to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in St. Vincent and the Grenadines,” NEMO said.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves urged persons to take the COVID-19 test as well as ensure that they are vaccinated, especially as many people are in shelters as a result of the eruption of the La Soufriere volcano.
In Guyana, health authorities reported two COVID-19 deaths for Tuesday.
They said two men – a 48-year-old from Region 4 (Demerara-Mahaica) and a 57-year-old from Region 3 (Essequibo Islands–West Demerara) lost the battle with virus. Their deaths have taken the country’s COVID19 death toll to 291.
The authorities said 72 new COVID19 cases were recorded Tuesday and 14 patients are in the COVID19 ICU. The number of persons in isolation is 1577 while 1501 have opted to isolate at home
In Barbados, three new positive cases of COVID-19 were recorded over the past 24 hours from the 300 tests conducted by the Best-dos Santos Public Health Laboratory.
The new cases comprise one male and two females. There were also four recoveries, while 101 people are in isolation.
The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 since March 2020 is 3,831 (1,867 females and 1,964 males) and there have been 3,750 recoveries. COVID-19 has claimed 44 lives.
St Lucia’s Prime Minister Allen Chasanet said that his administration has moved into the third phase of its COVID-19 response strategy focusing on safeguarding the lives and livelihoods of every citizen.
Chastanet in a statement posted on his Facebook page, said that the Economic Recovery and Resilience Plan, was compiled by a multi-stakeholder committee, comprising of private and public sectors and civil society.
He said the working group responded to the call to assist the country in a time when its mutual creativity was most needed. Chastanet described the initiative as forming the backbone of the island’s economic response to COVID-19.
“The plan which focuses on safeguarding the lives and livelihoods of every Saint Lucian is anchored on six response strategies: three recoveries and three resilience strategies.
“Budgeted at an estimated cost of $548 Million, the Economic Recovery and Resilience Plan represents the bold and unwavering commitment of the Government of St Lucia to spare no effort in ensuring that we safeguard the development gains that we have made over the past four decades since post-independence,” Chastanet said.
He said that the plan seeks to leave no one or sector behind and that it focuses on stimulating the local economy.