by Linda Straker
- 18 positive cases since first case was confirmed and publicly disclosed on 22 March
- 50-year-old female confirmed Covid-19 case is an asymptomatic carrier
- 2 other cases found through contact tracing
Almost one month after shutting down the Maurice Bishop International Airport (MBIA) to commercial passenger traffic, Health Minister, Nickolas Steele, has confirmed that 1 of the 3 latest confirmed Covid-19 cases is an asymptomatic carrier who, according to World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines, must be classified as an imported case.
The WHO guidelines state that an imported case is when a person travels to another country with the infection and is tested with a positive result in that country.
As of Saturday, 25 April 2020, Steele said the country’s total number of positive cases was 18 since the first case was confirmed and publicly disclosed on 22 March. Only 17 are on island, as one of the cases returned to the United Kingdom without medical permission.
In a Saturday news conference, Steele explained that 7 persons have been medically cleared and classified as recovered, while 7 others are active. The 3 new cases are described as stabilised with mild or no symptoms.
The asymptomatic imported case is a 50-year-old female who came from one of the international hotspots or epicentres with the virus. “She is an import-related case, and, is what is known as an asymptomatic carrier. She has displayed no symptoms to date,” Steele said. He explained that the individual had remained in quarantine for the required period of 14 days but decided to be tested to confirm her medical status because of the location from which she travelled.
The other 2 new individuals are males ages 62 and 59. They were found through contact tracing in the workplace of case number 15 – which is a possible community transmission because he has no recent travel history and was not associated with any of the previously confirmed cases.
Sharing details of the work being done by the medical team working to trace all those who may have interacted with confirmed patients, Steele said the team continues to aggressively pursue any and all possible contacts of positive individuals. “In the last week, they have concentrated their efforts on several areas, including the residential community of the 15th case, and his workplace, which has become a focal point of the investigation.”
So far health officials have conducted approximately 175 PCR tests, and in excess of 1,000 rapid tests, across different sectors of the population.
Dr Francis Martin, Acting Chief Medical Officer, said that all persons seeking medical attention at the casualty department especially if they are displaying flu-like symptoms are being tested for Covid-19.
The quarantine period should be no less than 28 days at a minimum. This 14 day isolation standard is stale, is wrond – and will get us into deep trouble. I have been saying this for over a month now! Not surprised that no one is listening…..
I never heard of Carriacou. Is it close to Curacao? Anyway it sounds bad down in those islands.
Being a health care provider who have worked in epidemiology, I will like to use this format to make a suggestion, in response to the statement made by the Acting Chief medical officer, indicating that persons who entered the casualty department with flu like symptoms are tested for the Covid 19. While this is a good practice, I don’t think the casualty is the correct setting.
I strongly suggest that a station be set up at a different location solely for evaluating and testing those persons.
Trust that my suggestion would be taken into consideration.
I agree with this…a tent set up in car park would suffice and keep emergency or casualty dept. Clear for other use…and contamination.
Since after that said person tested positive after the 14 days. I am confused, Persons in self Quarantine who had travel to the island needs to be retested. And maybe they need to self Quarantine for 21 days and not 14.
I agree. The quarantine should be longer than 14 days since it is possible to be still positive after 14 days. Retesting should also be a priority before returning to duties.
Now that an asymptomatic covid 19 case has been found in Grenada, are testing now being made on the residents of both Carriacou and PM as there were travellers to these islands from overseas before boarders were closed? We now need to have testing done on these islands to establish if there is someone in Carriacou and PM who is asymptomatic, and through no their own, isspreading the virus to others. We will only know this when people start mixing again.
So we need to start testing from now.