How OECS nations managed to get rid of Coronavirus

Coronavirus and the lockdowns across the globe are considered the only way to control the contamination of the virus. All the major economies are either under 24-hour lockdowns or observing partial curfews.

While lockdowns and curfews are considered to be the one and only way to break the chain of the virus, but some nations have shown otherwise.

COVID-19 is not an issue for some OECS countries, the major issue is economic fallout due to a steep drop in the tourism industry. Loss in exports, energy companies may cut back production plans in anticipation of weaker energy demand resulting from a contraction in the Caribbean manufacturing industry.

A significant number of Caribbean have successfully managed to get rid of the coronavirus after reporting the least amount of cases.

Anguilla, St Lucia and Dominica in OECS became an example for others by eliminating the virus from their islands.

As of May 20, more than 200 countries and territories of the 247 recognised by the United Nations have seen at least one case of the COVID-19 pandemic. Out of those 190 have also witnessed local transmission. Latin America or the Caribbean looked to be virus free for January and February, but later, spread reached to the Caribbean community as well.

As of April Anguilla’s Ministry of Health and Social Development updated WHO that the nation has no suspected cases and no evidence of COVID-19 transmission has been reported within Anguilla. There were three cases in the nation which were reported to be recovered. Its been nearly two months since its last active case of coronavirus.

Similarly, a small island nation, St Lucia has now announced to reopen the tourism sector to secure the country from cash crunch due to COVID-19. St Lucia had 18 confirmed cases of coronavirus after sealing the borders in March, however, the country managed to fully recover all 18 cases with no fatalities in the nation. The nation is now moving forward for economic yield.

Notwithstanding, the Commonwealth of Dominica confirmed 16 COVID-19 cases in the nation with no community transmission. The government of Dominica provided free food and multi-vitamins to the most vulnerable sector to safeguard the elderly. Prime Minister also implemented total lockdown for a few days to stop the community spread of Covid-19. Dominica became an example for other Caribbean nations by recovering from the pandemic.

These three OECS nations implemented the least restrictions on citizens and gave proper support during the 24-hour curfews. People happily assisted the governments with full support and the administrations even gave by distributing support in all manners to the citizens.

Some people are differed and think that COVID-19 spread has stopped with complete lockdown, but this mindset becomes incorrect when the situation is compared to India. The second most populated country halted the 1.3 billion people to stop the community spread, yet more than 100,000 people are infected today with the virus. The question here arises that how can this happen in complete lockdown.

The total lockdowns are not only impacted the economies, however, it is also resulting as rising mental stress to people. There are also countries that distributed food packages and multivitamins to the vulnerable sector of society.