A 14-year-old among two patients who recently tested positive of COVID-19 in Dominica

Two more people have tested positive for novel coronavirus in the Caribbean island of Dominica. National Epidemiologist Dr Shalauddin Ahmed stated that these two people are Dominicans who recently returned from the US.

Dr Ahmed stated that one of these patients is a 14-year-old male while the other is a 45-year-old female who are currently asymptomatic.

"One of them was identified at the airport following the rapid testing, and the second person was identified at the quarantine facility following the day five testing," added Dr Ahmed.

Furthermore, Dr Ahmed stated that a total of 81 coronavirus patients have successfully recovered and have been discharged from the COVID-19 centre.

No coronavirus related deaths have been reported in Dominica so far.

Since the opening of borders on July 15, a total of 69 cases were detected using the PCR method, stated the national epidemiologist.

Besides this, Dr Ahmed noted that 85% of the total cases were identified through active surveillance which means a large number of these cases were detected during on-arrival screening, contact tracing and routine screening of suspect cases.

He continued, saying that the progress and recovery rate in the country has been significant so far.

"The protocols that we have implemented such as risk stratification during the pre-travel screening, on arrival screening at ports, day five screening including contact tracing and community tracing is working well." added the National Epidemiologist.

Dr Shalauddin stated that the health department plans to start another set of community testing of COVID-19 from next week.

The target population includes the elderly people in the nursing care centres, front-line workers at the Douglas Charles Airport, contact tracing team members at primary care including staff at the contract tracing and also bus drivers would be tested.

Besides this, Dr Ahmed asserted that fishers would also be among those who will be examined during the upcoming community testing.

The upcoming community drive would be performed by using serology method- An antibody testing method. A total of 400 tests are claimed to be conducted by utilising the serology method.

National Epidemiologist noted the objective of this testing and stated it would be done to understand the level of COVID-19 virus in various communities.