Attached are charts for the week ending 1st April. All the charts indicate a distinct upswing in the epidemic reminiscent of the changes around the period when Omicron was taking over from the Delta strain. I suspect we are now in a similar phase when the new variant Omicron BA-2 might be taking over from Omicron.
Source: Lyall Small
BU COVID 19 Dash – Numbers Rising
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104 responses to “BU COVID 19 Dash – Numbers Rising”
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Tourism backlash
By Barry Alleyne
barryalleyne@nationnews.com
Barbados has started to lose some of its allure as a holiday destination due to its mask-wearing mandate and COVID-19 entry requirements.
Chief executive officer of the Barbados Hotel & Tourism Association (BHTA), Rudy Grant, told the Saturday Sun yesterday that their membership hotels had been the bearers of bad news in recent weeks, revealing that holiday-goers were starting to shift their attention to Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada and St Lucia to book their vacations.
He said that as a result the association will be seeking urgent dialogue with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Tourism to nip the situation in the bud. They want Government to quickly review the requirements, in particular the one where all people in public spaces have to wear masks.
“What we have been informed so far, from our tour operators, are that some other Caribbean destinations are selling well and that we should be cautious it will continue,” Grant said.
“The other destinations they have identified are those which have recently indicated that the testing requirements and the wearing of masks are no longer being instituted. Our tour operators and partners have communicated some concerns about that shift.”
He said they want to know what can be done to put Barbados back in front of the competition in the Eastern Caribbean, especially after an extremely productive 2021 winter tourist season, which saw thousands of British here between January and last month.
Concern
“We want to make them [the ministries] aware of the feedback we are getting from our partners to determine how we can collaborate going forward to make sure our industry remains competitive,”
he added.
The BHTA’s concern comes just two days after Chief Medical Officer The Most Honourable Dr Kenneth George, made it clear that the mask requirement remained in place.
During a press conference on Wednesday, George said public health authorities had recognised some lapses in the wearing of masks, citing the two most glaring examples as at the recent Test match at Kensington Oval between the West Indies and England, and at the Oistins Bay Garden. In both instances, hundreds of visitors and some Barbadians could be seen not wearing masks while in close proximity to each other.
George also revealed the country was dealing with a steady increase in new infections of COVID-19. He added Barbados would be sending samples to the Caribbean Public Health Agency for sequencing to determine if the highly infectious BA.2 version of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 is present here.
Grant said that as part of Barbados keeping in touch with the trends of Caribbean travel, there was constant review of the COVID-19 restrictions and protocols of Eastern Caribbean neighbours. He added they were already witnessing a slight shift towards Grenada, St Lucia and Antigua and Barbuda, three destinations that all amended their entry requirements in the last few weeks.
Unlike those destinations, travellers to Barbados must still present at Grantley Adams International Airport with at least a negative COVID-19 antigen test result provided within 24 hours of arrival.
Grant said the main source market from where clients were starting to choose the other islands was the United Kingdom, and the actions of British visitors in Barbados during the recent Test match were a clear indication they would prefer an island where they could move about under fewer social restrictions.
Source: Nation -
Brazil and Africa being targeted for Crop Over
By Tre Greaves tregreaves@nationnews.com
The Sweetest Summer Festival will soon meet the Samba.
As negotiations with Crop Over stakeholders continue, efforts to attract more visitors from international markets to this year’s festival and beyond have intensified, and South America’s largest country, Brazil, will be the main target as the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. (BTMI) looks to make its presence felt in Latin American from next week.
A BTMI team is expected to attend the World Travel Market in Sao Paulo, Brazil, from April 5 to 7, to put the case to the country that globalised Carnival.
Chief executive officer at the BTMI, Jens Thraenhart, said that in addition to Europe, the United States and United Kingdom (UK), they were also making a great effort to connect with West African countries and Latin America.
“Getting out of COVID, people want to connect with these festivals and gain authentic experiences, so I think it is great to see Crop Over happening,” he told the Saturday Sun. “We have our key source markets, the UK, Europe, Canada, the US and the Caribbean, but virtually Barbados will be exposed to other markets as well, and through our market portfolio analysis, we will see what the response to Barbados is and see how we can connect.
“One market we are looking to explore is Africa to see how through heritage we can look at Ghana and other West African countries,” Thraenhart added.
Minister of Tourism and International Transport Senator Lisa Cummins added that interest in the summer festival had grown since it was announced last month that Crop Over will return after a two-year absence because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The minute that Crop Over was announced the market
started to come alive and people started to get the excitement that Barbados is back and Crop Over is happening.
“So we have integrated the Season of Emancipation and Crop Over into our promotions of the market. The summer season includes heavily discounted fares and we are working with the airlines to ensure that there is appropriate airlift. If we can get all of the negotiations that we are already working on completed, you will see at least some seasonal flights coming in over the summer months to allow for that lift to take place,” Cummins said.
She was speaking to the Saturday Sun yesterday after a tour of the Rock Hall Freedom Park in Rock Hall, St Thomas, where a new stage, amphitheatre and other features were revealed.
Cummins also said there will be more investment to make sure activities in Barbados were more visible.
“There is also meant to be significant investment in brand management in our overseas markets. There will be the roll-out of our postcards campaign which will capture the essence of what Barbados is offering for summer, including Crop Over.
“The BTMI has been asked to set up big screens in major cities which will stream live from Barbados. So you are going to be seeing such a spectacle in the source markets so that anyone who is not here for 2022 is going to be booking early for next year because we not just planning for the immediate season, but next year as well,” the minister said.
Since some festival changes were announced last week, including the route changes for the decentralised Grand Kadooment and Foreday Morning events, there have been mixed reactions.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office with responsibility for Culture Dr Shantal Munro-Knight has urged the dissenting voices to be patient.Source: Nation
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Crop over ?
YouTube
Brazil Carnival – Best of Highlights – Beautiful Dancers Compilation – Samba – Carnaval Brasil
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Might be they live in areas where the water supply is Covid free … or as one doctor opined, they have no friends!!
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Brazil and Africa being targeted for Crop Over
By Tre Greaves tregreaves@nationnews.com
The Sweetest Summer Festival will soon meet the Samba.
As negotiations with Crop Over stakeholders continue, efforts to attract more visitors from international markets to this year’s festival and beyond have intensified, and South America’s largest country, Brazil, will be the main target as the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. (BTMI) looks to make its presence felt in Latin American from next week.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
If we could replace our British visitors with those from Brazil, our Covid numbers would fall.
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I predict the PM will force the CMO to drop all the protocols except for hand sanitizer and fully open the country during this April month to ensure the tourism goose keeps laying golden eggs to get us out of our economic deficit hole.
The COVID cases and deaths have been inflated for the longest time to hide the fact that all the measures were overkill.The latest one being the recent jump in people dying at home subsequently testing positive postmortem not having a proper autopsy to determine cause of death.
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A UK doctor predicts COVID cases in the UK will soar and that “any control we had over Covid is over”
Another UK doctor (John Campbell) says cases will plummet.
Who is right, time will tell.
Me, I think the doctor saying cases will plummet is correct because that’s what happens and is observable time and time again in all countries.
He may not understand why … but it is obvious.
If cases do fall as he predicts and I expect, they will do so because the water supply has improved momentarily.
However, because no one seems to understand that simple fact, I expect that the pattern of rises and falls will continue.
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Caribbean countries ‘dropping guard’
The mask mandate in tourist dependent Barbados and the lack of conformity by visitors has provoked contentious discussion about one rule for locals and one rule for the others.
While mask wearing is one of the highly recommended precautions against the spreading of the COVID-19 virus, policing it has become a frustrating exercise for authorities.
However, this week chief executive officer of the Barbados Hotel & Tourism Association, Rudy Grant, indicated that there may be a shift by tourists to other Caribbean destinations with less strident mask mandates, such as Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda and St Lucia.
In February, the director of the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO), Dr Carissa F. Etienne, warned that complacency around mask wearing and other restrictions such as travel and indoor gatherings would be the perfect opportunity for the Omicron variant to spread rapidly throughout the region. That, she reasoned, could lead to an increase in deaths, with many places remaining “just as they were before”.
Meantime, in The Bahamas around mid-March, that country’s government loosened its masks requirement so that a person was not required to wear a face mask while in a lobby, corridor or casino of a hotel or while in an outdoor setting, where there is at least three feet of space between persons who are not of the same household.
Discriminatory
Free National Movement chairman and former minister of health Dr Duane Sands called the new relaxations on face masks “glaringly discriminatory”.
In further reaction Pan American Health Organisation director of health emergencies Dr Ciro Ugarte said adjustments of COVID-19 restrictions must be “dynamic” in the context of each country’s individual situation, but it should not be surprising if certain protocols are re-implemented as the trends fluctuate.
However, until that is the case, Grenada is ending all COVID entry rules for Brits, regardless of their vaccination status from tomorrow. That includes the lifting of the face mask from tomorrow as announced by a “delighted” Shawn Charles, chief medical officer for Ministry of Health in Grenada.
He is quoted in the travel mode as saying: “Grenada is at a stage where we can consider the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions, even though we are aware the pandemic is not yet over.”
The tri-island state of Grenada, includes Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique, all of which are getting rid of the restrictions also from tomorrow.
“We’re delighted to be able to offer all travellers a seamless and easy travel experience and we’re looking forward to welcoming them to our beautiful islands,”Charles stated.
Grenada isn’t the only Caribbean destination relaxing the once militant COVID-19 rules.
Antigua and Barbuda dropped its mask mandate – which had been in place since 2020 – around the middle of March. The decision to make mask-wearing optional was taken during a meeting of its cabinet after a presentation by Health Minister Sir Molwyn Joseph and Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Rhonda Sealey-Thomas, according to reports out of that twinisland state.
The variation in the ban is that face masks can be worn by workers indoors where they come into contact with strangers and in the outdoors, it is recommended that people wear masks when they are in crowds.
Optional
Antigua and Barbuda was the first member of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to make mask-wearing optional with 62 per cent of its eligible population fully vaccinated. The government is robustly encouraging residents to become vaccinated to meet the goal of 70 per cent by June 1.
Last month as public health measures continued to be lifted in many parts of the Americas, Etienne reiterated her warning about lowering their guard too soon.
“When places relax measures at the wrong moment, transmission spikes dangerously and we lose more lives,” she said in a media briefing.
She advised countries to base decisions on risk assessments and health data and to tighten public health guidance if cases go up.
“COVID-19 is likely to be here to stay. We must learn to live with this virus, and quickly adapt to new changes,” the PAHO director added. ( AC)Source: Nation
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The low vaccination rate in the Caribbean once again impressively shows that all this WOKE and BLM speak about the equality of all people is complete nonsense. Of course people differ culturally. We see this best with the low vaccination rate in our region.
Our Supreme Leader should therefore have no more regard for our superstitious natives who fear Corona vaccination more than their white masters. All had the opportunity to be vaccinated with Biontech or Moderna. Those who still die now have only themselves to blame.
I therefore call for the end of any compulsory testing for fully vaccinated arrivals, the end of compulsory masks and more.
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DavidApril 2, 2022 10:09 AM
Tourism backlash
By Barry Alleyne
barryalleyne@nationnews.com
Barbados has started to lose some of its allure as a holiday destination due to its mask-wearing mandate and COVID-19 entry requirements.
Chief executive officer of the Barbados Hotel & Tourism Association (BHTA), Rudy Grant, told the Saturday Sun yesterday that their membership hotels had been the bearers of bad news in recent weeks, revealing that holiday-goers were starting to shift their attention to Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada and St Lucia to book their vacations.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Surely these officials understand that the tourist season is from Mid December to mid April and it is now April.
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COVID-19 UPDATE: 204 new cases – COVID-19 UPDATE: 204 new cases:
https://barbadostoday.bb/2022/04/03/covid-19-update-204-new-cases/
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A total of 204 people were identified as COVID-19 positive from the 960 tests conducted on Saturday, April 2
204 from 960
https://barbadostoday.bb/2022/04/03/covid-19-update-204-new-cases/
Hope Barbados has a plan to treat those who contract Covid during and after Cropover.
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@John April 3, 2022 5:06 PM
This year for one year only, the tourist season is all year . The tourists have been locked up at home climbing the walls for 2 years with nothing to spend their money on and cruising on the huge floating petri dishes is not coming back in any serious numbers until winter this year or early next year at best.
Occupancy will be near 100% for the rest of the year if we get rid of the useless protocols starting with all port entry requirements, masks protocols and testing exposed people not exhibiting symptoms. Masks never worked and only succeeded in giving a false sense of security
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Well, if the Tourists aren’t coming the whales are!
I’ve read about a Tiger Shark eating a child swimming off Speightstown in 1927 and also tha there was a whaling station in Speightstown but here’s what happened I am told off the West Coast today.
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@ Critical Analyzer April 3, 2022 8:18 PM
“Occupancy will be near 100% for the rest of the year if we get rid of the useless protocols starting with all port entry requirements, masks protocols and testing exposed people not exhibiting symptoms. Masks never worked and only succeeded in giving a false sense of security.”
How right you are! Everyone had the chance to be vaccinated. These so-called protocols remind me of a cultic act, they have no medically necessary function whatsoever.
Time to end Corona fascism!
It is not Corona that has badly damaged our economy and finances, but numerous xenophobic proposals by the BAMP Taliban to turn Barbados into a medical North Korea. Time for our Supreme Leader to go against BAMP and other enemies of tourism.
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The Best-dos Santos Public Health Laboratory recorded 222 new COVID-19 cases, 101 males and 121 females, from the 884 tests carried out on Sunday, April 3.
222 from 884
https://barbadostoday.bb/2022/04/04/covid-19-update-222-new-cases/
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@Hants
Positivity rate up to 25%.
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LOL
Boss, if you think it ‘interesting’ that more vaccinated persons are ill, than are the unvaccinated, then you have not been paying enough attention.
Wait until someone gets around to producing that simple graph that the poor bushman has been requesting for weeks now…(all-cause deaths & causes vis a vis vaccinated, unvaccinated etc.)
THAT data will become increasingly interesting. -
@Bush Tea
There is that AND the fact primary care has the highest number for unvaccinated.
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I LOVE TO READ THESE COVID POSTS AND ALL THE CHARTS AND STATISTICS ON BU FOR MY MORNING MIRTH
TODAY IN BARBADOS TODAY, WE READ OF THE BAMP PRESIDENT SPEAKING OUT…….AND SAYING NOTHING.
COME ON FOLK “MASK UP”” KEEP ON MASKING UP CAUSE THAT WILL STOP THE COVIDNOW I AM VERY NAIVE AND A DUNCE RIGHT? UNLIKE JOHN WHO WON THE ISLAND SCHOLARSHIP TWICE, I ONLY ONE ONCE, BUT STUPIDLY TURNED DOWN TWO, CAUSE I THOUGHT THAT I HAD GOT ENOUGH BENEFITS FROM OUR NATIONAL PROVISION AND LARGESS
BUT I ALWAYS FOUND THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE EASY.. AND AFTER ATTENDING MEDICAL SCHOOL THE SECOND TIME IT IS NOW EVEN CLEARER
IF YOU COME TO A DIAGNOSIS OF ACUTE APPENDICITIS………YUH DOES DO AN APPENDICECTOMY.
IF YOU COME TO A DIAGNOSIS OF CHOLOLITHIASIS ………YUH DOES START WITH DRIP AND SUCK, BEFORE INVARIABLY DOING CHOLCYSTECTOMY.
IF YOU COME TO A DIAGNOSIS OF A RUPTURED SPLEEN ……..YUH DOES DO A SPLENECTOMY.
IF YOU COME TO A DIAGNOSIS OF A UTERINE PROBLEM YUH DOES DO A HYSTERECTOMYGENERALLY YUH DOES KNOW WUH TO DO BECAUSE THE ANSWER MAY USUALLY BE FOUND
IN THE STANDARD TEXTS
OR THE FINE PRINT OF THE NOTES THE CHAPS GET WHEN THEY TAKE THE POST GRAD COURSES IN THE UK PRIOR TO THE EXAMS FOR FRCS OR MRCP
OR FRENCH’S TOME ABOUT DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSES—A MOST COMPREHENSIVE BOOK THAT ADDRESSES NEARLY ALL SYMPTOMSSO WUH YUH DOES DO WHEN A CORONOVIRAL INFECTION ARISES? YUH DOES LISTEN TO DR FALSY, AND THE EDICTS OF THE WHO DIRECTOR WHO AINT A DR. AND YOU DIRECT THE WORLD AND IN SOME COUNTRIES FORCE THE PEOPLE TO FOLLOW UNCONVENTIONAL METHODS THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH NORMAL MEDICAL PRACTICE.
THEN TO ADD TO THE MIRTH FOR ME, IS THE BU RUM SHOP FOLK WHO ARE BONE FIDE AND WELL QUALIFIED MEDICAL ILLITERATES SO THEY READ ARTICLES ONLINE THAT THEY DONT REALLY UNDERSTAND , BASICALLY BECAUSE THEY DONT KNOW OR UNDERSTAND THE BASIC MEDICAL SCIENCES……………AND THEN THESE BETZPAENIC BRIMBLERS BLUSTER ON BU THIER CONCENTRATED BOVINE EXCREMENT.
ALL THIS WHEN THE PHYSICIAN’S BIBLE HARRISON’S TEXT BOOK OF INTERNAL MEDICINE HAS CLEARLY ENUNCIATED THAT CORONOVIRUSES CAN BE TREATED SUCESSFULLY BY EXHIBITING INVERMECTIN OR HYDROXYCHLOROQUINONE
FURTHERMORE THE MECHANISM OF ACTION OF BOTH OF THESE DRUGS ARE CLEARLY ENUNCIATED THERE IN BLACK AND WHITE IN THE PHYSICIAN’S BIBLE HARRISON’S TEXT BOOK OF INTERNAL MEDICINE
NOW WHEN I USED TO PRACTICE PRIVATELY, I KEPT MEDICINES IN MY OFFICE THAT I KNEW WERE EFFECTIVE TO THE MALADIES THAT PRESENTED COMMONLY.
IF I WAS IN PRIVATE PRACTICE TODAY, ONCE I COULD GET HOLD OF THEM, I WOULD HAVE A STOCK OF INVERMECTIN OR HYDROXYCHLOROQUINONE TO DISPENSE TO ALL MY PATIENTS WITH FLU LIKE SYMPTOMS………….BECAUSE THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE IS QUITE SIMPLE, ……
ONCE YOU ARE NOT TAKING DIRECTIONS FROM DIABOLICAL DOCTORS ON TAKE BY THE PHARMACOLOGICAL INDUSTRY, OR DIRECTED BY THIER POLITICAL MASTERS
OR
ONCE YOUR PRACTICE OF MEDICINE IS NOT DIRECTED BY A LOUD MOUTHED LGBQ ETC OBESE POLITICAL LEADER WHO HAS QUALIFIED AS A PRIME BONE FIDE AND WELL QUALIFIED MEDICAL ILLITERATE.
OR
AN EPEDIMIOLOGISTAS THEY SAY IN CHURCH JUST PRIOR TO PROCESSION……………..LET US PROCEED IN PEACE.
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More vaccinated persons are ill because we are mostly testing returning visitors who who come from some of the most vaccinated countries on earth.
… plus, it is a known fact that vaccinations do not stop you catching COVID.
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Barbados recorded 432 new coronavirus (COVID-19) cases, from the 1 715 tests conducted on Monday, April 4, by the Best-dos Santos Public Health Laboratory.
423 from 1715
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Grenada is done with COVID measures.
https://www.nationnews.com/2022/04/05/grenada-ends-state-emergency-removes-mask-mandate/Guess their PM saw my two earlier comments made April 2, 2022 8:06 PM and April 3, 2022 8:18 PM and realised what I said made total sense. Now all we need do is get our PM to see reason.
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@CA
If Barbados had done same it would be considered a money grab?
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HantsApril 5, 2022 6:34 PM
Barbados recorded 432 new coronavirus (COVID-19) cases, from the 1 715 tests conducted on Monday, April 4, by the Best-dos Santos Public Health Laboratory.
423 from 1715
https://www.nationnews.com/2022/04/05/432-new-virus-cases/
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How many of these are visitors returning to their countries?
How many are Brits who have developed COVID that was incubating in them from before they left the UK and decided to get tested?
How many are locals?
We are seeing an uptick in isolations.
How many are visitors, how many locals?
The Ministry of Health needs to say how many imported cases are preset in the 432.
Seems pointless to discuss without the detail.
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@David
By my calculation, Barbados will have to do the same by the end of this month and definitely long before Crop Over starts or they will not be able to attract the tourist numbers to get us out of the deficit hole they dig and put us in.
What tourists want to risk spending their good money come here to be told to isolate if they test positive but are not sick and wear masks everywhere so they can’t properly smell and experience our clean air and do things few other countries are doing. They will simply take their money and go elsewhere like they have started to do.
Our government painted us into a corner with their shortsighted COVID protocols with no idea how to get out the corner without them admitting they went too far.
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Critical AnalyzerApril 5, 2022 7:47 PM
Grenada is done with COVID measures.
https://www.nationnews.com/2022/04/05/grenada-ends-state-emergency-removes-mask-mandate/Guess their PM saw my two earlier comments made April 2, 2022 8:06 PM and April 3, 2022 8:18 PM and realised what I said made total sense. Now all we need do is get our PM to see reason.
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Pointed this out the other night.
Like Barbados, Grenada depends on tourism.
However Grenada in 2019 received half of the number of visitors Barbados got.
In addition the bulk of their visitors ~47% is from the USA which is far higher than our USA percentage.
Their UK percentage is ~14% where ours is ~33%.
Their COVID cases will reflect the prevailing situation in the USA while ours will reflect the UK situation.
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Our COVID cases reflect the UK situation which is significantly different from the US situation.
Grenada and Barbados are markedly different.
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Grenada gets most of its visitors ~47% from the USA while we get a far lesser percentage.
Also, in 2019, before COVID, Grenada received about half the visitors we received.
Grenada and Barbados are different.
It’s worth the risk to do what the Mother Country is doing just to see what happens!!
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We are falling further and further behind in tourism. The BAMP Taliban, our mentally backward vaccination opponents and other enemies of the state are to blame.
Time for our Supreme Leader to lift all Corona measures. If any unvaccinated doctors die, it’s their personal problem.
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Govt sticking with masks
WITH BARBADOS’ COVID-19 numbers almost doubling in the last 24 hours, Minister of Health and Wellness Ian Gooding-Edghill is tightening up on Government’s decision to maintain mask mandates, despite calls for an ease from those in the tourism sector.
In fact, he disclosed yesterday his ministry will be ramping up the distribution of masks in the coming days while giving the assurance there will be no rolling back of eases in protocols due to the spike in cases, which health officials believe is due to the Omicron sub-variant Ba2.
Gooding-Edghill, who was speaking at a virtual COVID-19 press briefing, revealed that discussions had started with Attorney General Dale Marshall for a ticketing system for protocol breaches such as the wearing of masks in public spaces, as opposed to prosecution.
Highly recommended
“We are aware of the concerns regarding face masks but masks are still highly recommended and effective in reducing the impact of COVID. The Ministry of Health and Wellness, through its health promotion officers and volunteers, will be increasing the distribution of masks in the communities,” he said.
“Concerns have been raised about the continued use of prosecutions and the court system to deal with what some consider to be relatively minor breaches of the COVID directives. Other jurisdictions have been using ticketing systems as a quick and effective means of punishing individuals who break the rules. We will therefore discuss with the Attorney General about how a ticketing system could be implemented in Barbados to deal with such things as a failure to wear masks in public spaces and other similar breaches.”
On Monday, 1 715 tests yielded 432 positive cases. On Sunday there were 222.
No linkages
The ministry has determined that the increase in cases started around March 28, but said no linkages had been made to the well-attended Test match between England and West Indies at Kensington Oval, which coincided with the same period.
Gooding-Edghill revealed that the positivity rate now stands at 25 per cent and the R-effective rate stands at 1.5, while the doubling time (growth rate of the virus) was decreasing.
Stressing there was no need for alarm, he said the spike was anticipated and planned for, adding that people were not becoming seriously ill and the isolation centres had not become overburdened.
He said there will be no curfews or lockdowns, but individuals will have to live safely in a COVID-19 environment.
“We do not regard this new situation as a setback. Rather, the possibility of such an occurrence has been long anticipated and planned for given that such events are a natural part of the continued behaviour of viruses. As I said before, all indications are that we will have to continue to live, work and socialise safely in the COVID-19 environment, closely following the established and proven protocols,” he said.
Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Anton Best, who also took part in the media briefing, expressed concern that less than 50 per cent of the eligible population had opted for booster shots.
“In terms of the vaccine programme, at this current juncture, 56 per cent of the total population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19 but while we looked at those who are eligible to be boosted, we are only at 45 per cent of the eligible population being boosted. So we need to get those numbers up. Persons need to come forward to be boosted once they have gone past the six-month mark of the primary phase,” said Best, who added that discussions had begun on possibly changing the definition of fully vaccinated.
Under the current definition, a person who has received their first and second jab is considered fully vaccinated.
“We have had discussions about changing the definition about fully vaccinated, but we don’t have a conclusion as yet from the Ministry of Health. As soon as we have made the decision about whether we are going to change the definition of a fully vaccinated person, we will let the public know. Please appreciate that even in the absence of a change in the definition of fully vaccinated, we are pushing the need for boosters, and we are monitoring the uptake of the booster campaign,” he said. (CLM)Source: Nation
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Ten severely ill with virus at Harrison Point
NUMBERS ARE PICKING back up at the Harrison Point Isolation Facility in St Lucy.
Ten Barbadians are severely ill with COVID-19 there, head of the facility Dr Corey Forde revealed during a press conference yesterday, where public health officials spoke about the rising number of COVID-19 cases.
As of yesterday, Barbados’ positivity rate had increased to 22 per cent, with every two people who contract the virus in a position to infect at least three people.
Forde said that 75 people were at Harrison Point, inclusive of 53 males.
“Ten of them are in our primary isolation, a building where we have our most ill people, and seven are on ventilators or some kind of oxygenation therapy. If we look at the presentation of individuals, we’ve seen an increase, probably over the last seven days, and our admission numbers (at Harrison Point) have increased by over 50 per cent,” he reported.
He said the majority of those new patients admitted suffered from asthma and had attacks while battling COVID-19. “I want to encourage all those in our communities who are asthmatics and who have symptoms of COVID-19 or who have COVID-19 to present themselves very
early to our system.”
Forde said too many people, especially youth, were presenting to the system late, sometimes four or five days after their COVID-19 symptoms first developed.
He also made a plea to those in charge of elderly people to get them into vaccination centres as a means of protecting against the disease, especially now another surge in infections had been identified.
Head of the Home Isolation Programme Dr Adanna Grandison said they too were dealing with more people forced to stay at home with the viral illness.
The number went past 2 000 yesterday, the highest since February.
Grandison said people should be wary of determining they will not get vaccinated since chances are, they will survive the virus. “It’s not just acute COVID-19 we are worried about. It’s also the quality of life concerning long COVID-19. The vaccination also decreases the issues associated with long COVID-19,” she warned. She added health officials had realised more Barbadians were using home tests to determine their COVID-19 status, but the Ministry of Health and Wellness preferred the more reliable PCR test. (BA)Source: Nation
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@CA
It seems illogical the government would rescind the mask mandate with numbers rising again attributed to the BA.2 and other variants.
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The situation is markedly different of course, Barbados experienced flooding and Grenada has not in recent weeks.
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@David April 6, 2022 5:43 AM
They will keep it that way because they are all about the optics and pushing vaccination as the way out. I bet they will be pushing boosters within another week.
I watched the press conference and did you notice there was no urgency since the last press conference to get samples to the CARPHA lab to see what strains we have circulating. I am sure they could have had them there within 24 hours if they were so inclined.
Just like they did not bother to enforce mask mandates on the cricket watchers at Kensington because it would have been bad press on the international stage affecting future tourist numbers, they will continue to flail around while the economy languishes and they squander scare medical resources they could be refocusing on people with NCDs.
They not fooling anybody but themselves, all except the etreme hypochondriacs have moved on and are living their lives COVID or no COVID.
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There was a time when the GoB had a great understanding of the virus and was putting up a valiant fight. Things have changed. The fly in the ointment is that the vaccine is not a cure, those who are vaccinated can become infected and the continuing emergence of new variants.
A few days ago, we were being told that new cases were decreasing. If you just look at raw numbers, you can make the recovery appear to be better by testing fewer people.However, if one look at the number of new cases as a percentage of the numbers tested this number was relatively flat. The good news was not that good.
At this time, with so many variables unaccounted for, it is difficult to understand what the statistics are telling us. Covid-19 was and remains complicated.
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🐇/🐰
It appears that as you are abandoning your flooding theory, others are picking it up. -
@CA
The blogmaster did not watch the press conference. What can we say except our best doctors in the region and the globe seem to agree in the majority.
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Who said the vaccine was the cure? It was always promoted as mitigating severe illness. There is a focus on contracting the virus, then there is the other concern- long COVID. The chart put out by Barbados still reflect majority numbers in primary care are unvaccinated patients.
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Oh dear! That was a general statement and could even include me. No shade was meant or thrown.
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@David April 6, 2022 7:46 AM
If you watched the press conference, you would recognize the vaccine is being pushed as the unofficial cure when you count the amount of time they spent talking about getting vaccinated and boosted.
Less time was spent on sensitizing us to true risk factors and the demographics at higher risk outside of people with asthma and how people with NCDs must put more emphasis on managing their NCDs. The medical doctors had the poor people so frightened of COVID with their death and long COVID talk they were afraid to leave home to get their regular checkups which puts them more at risk of a poor outcome than a vaccine that becomes ineffective after 3-6 months.
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Let me be honest. Don’t you dare add ‘for once’.
I used to give little or no weight to the BU theories on the causes or spread of Covid. I had this drawer that was labeled ‘Conspiracy Theories’ and would conveniently put theories in there and close the drawer.
However, the third, now fourth and possibly many more vaccines has me reopening and looking in my conspiracy theory drawer.
Still convinced that on this matter that CA, BT, GP and 🐇/🐰 are wrong, but the nuts their message is gaining credibility and (damn it) is making sense. Some people made some good money… beginning to remind me of the Y2K problem.
Still convinced that 🐇/🐰 and his drinking water theory is wrong. Was a good idea, but he does not differentiate between during and waste water. Wonder what he is drinking??!
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