St Kitts and Nevis reported second COVID-19 related death

Basseterre: Deadly wave of COVID-19 is grappling St Kitts and Nevis as within 24 hours, the twin-island nation has reported the second coronavirus related death.

Chief Medical Officer, Dr Hazel Laws shared the information on Monday during a press briefing by the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC) at the NEMA conference room.

“There are now two COVID-19 related deaths,” said CMO Hazel Laws while explaining the efforts by the health department to reduce the transmission of the deadly virus.

According to data provided by health officials, since May 19, 2021 St Kitts and Nevis has reported 305 COVID-19 cases where only 30 persons were recovered, leaving 273 active cases in the country.

21 persons were admitted to the Joseph N France General Hospital and 10 were discharged while other 9 persons are under medical supervision and 2 deaths are reported.

Dr Laws added that the recent cases fall under the age and of 20 to 49 years, whereas actual age starts from 0 (infants) to 80 years according to whole data of active cases in the federation.

CMO added that Health Officials are tirelessly working on for contact tracing and testing programme to break the chain of coronavirus second wave. The health officials have interviewed over 2,108 persons and placed them under isolation. However, 1,317 persons were cleared and released from self-quarantine.

Dr Laws said, “To date, we have contained the outbreak to a degree. Just through our contact tracing process only, we have picked up those positive contacts who if we weren’t contact tracing.”

Since the outbreak took place in St Kitts and Nevis since May 19, the health department has conducted over 7,417 tests of COVID-19, which represents 15.72 percent of the population.

Officials also called upon the people to take Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines to curb the fatality of coronavirus. Dr Laws added that people must also practice non-pharmaceutical measures, such as wearing of masks at public places, maintaining physical distancing, frequently washing and sanitizing hands.