St Kitts and Nevis reports single digits of COVID-19 cases, says Dr Wilkinson

Basseterre: The health authorities of St. Kitts and Nevis are successfully managing the third wave of COVID-19, as statistics show a decrease in the number of positive cases and a significant increase in the number of recoveries. In Tuesday's (October 20) edition of the COVID-19 National Emergency Operations Center briefing, Joseph N. France General Hospital Medical Chief of Staff, Dr Cameron Wilkinson cited statistics indicating that the Federation is in the final part of the third wave. He showed that from October 13-19, there were 123 new cases with 682 recoveries. The previous week, from October 6 to 12, there were 172 new cases with 312 recoveries. He also presented a graph indicating high peaks in the number of cases from August 1 to October 19, sometimes reaching the thirties and forties. Recent daily counts have been in single digits.

In fact, the figures at the close of the business day on Wednesday, October 20, show that there were two confirmed cases in the last 24 hours. Active cases stood at 388, while there were 2,182 recovered cases.

"This is a sign that we are turning the curve and heading in the right direction," said Dr Wilkinson.

The Vaccination Report of October 20, 2021 also highlighted the success of the Roll Up to Roll Out campaign. It revealed that a total of 49,774 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine were administered in the Twin Island Federation. The initial goal was to vaccinate a minimum of 33,037 adults. Of that number, 76.3 percent of adults have received a first injection of the Oxford-AstraZeneca or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, while 71.7 percent have received their second injection. Meanwhile, health authorities have set a goal of vaccinating 4,800 children between the ages of 12 and 17. To date, 11.1 percent received the first dose, while 7.2 percent completed the two-shot regimen of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

Dr Wilkinson noted that the high vaccination rate is an essential milestone as the Federation grapples with COVID-19, as it continues to wreak havoc in the health and economic sectors around the world.

“I want to appeal again to the people of the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis. Earlier this year, we (St. Kitts and Nevis) were recognized as the nation with the lowest risk of COVID-19 in this part of the hemisphere and we can earn that recognition again once we continue to increase vaccination coverage and use non-pharmaceutical products to protect us," he said.