BA.2 sub variant of COVID-19 in Barbados

9

Statement by Minister of Health and Wellness, Ian Gooding-Edghill, on the presence of the Omicron Ba.2 Sub Variant in Barbados.

You will recall that last week I brought the nation up-to-date on the state of affairs regarding the dramatic increase in the number of new COVID-19 cases. On that occasion, the question of the existence of the new BA.2 variant in Barbados was raised.

I am now in position to inform you that based on the results of samples sent to the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) laboratory in Trinidad for analysis, I am now confirming that the BA.2 sub variant of COVID-19 does exist in Barbados.

In fact, 90 per cent of the samples sent to CARPHA were found to be positive for this Omicron variant which is highly contagious, but which does not generally lead to serious illness.

The increase in the positivity rate started on March 28, 2022, and according to today’s dashboard for April 13, the Ministry of Health and Wellness recorded 428 new cases of COVID-19 out of 1,357 samples tested. This represents an unfortunate record high of a 28 per cent positivity rate. This is in keeping with science that shows that the more COVID spreads, the higher the positivity rate will be.

Our records show that since March 28, 5,104 new infections were detected. The Omicron sub-variant BA.2 is reportedly more transmissible than BA.1 by 50-80 per cent and this has been attributed to the increased transmission of COVID-19 globally.

Let me remind you that COVID-19 is still with us and is likely to be with us for a long time. Be assured that we have the experience and scientific tools to help us properly manage the impact of COVID-19. The non-pharmaceutical interventions such as mask wearing, physical distancing, good hand hygienic practices and ventilation are critical to reducing the spread of this virus.

We also have COVID-19 vaccines for persons who need to be vaccinated for the first time and for those who needed to be boosted. I, therefore, join in strongly urging those Barbadians who for whatever reason have not yet been fully vaccinated or boosted, to seriously reconsider their position, seek medical guidance and take the necessary steps to correct their situation.

There is overwhelming proof internationally that vaccination and boosting remain crucial to minimizing chances of serious illness and possible death. We have testing facilities to diagnose persons who have possible symptoms of COVID and we have Isolation facilities and the Home Isolation Programme for persons who have COVID-19.

I wish to assure that we have been planning for this phase and, over the last two years, we have learnt and improved our techniques to address what is happening in the community.

As we head into our long Easter weekend, I once again advise that the tightening of any of the protocols is not being considered. But at the same time, I am sure that Barbadians as a whole will practice restraint, discipline and moderation with their social activities and interactions over the next few days.

The reality is that we have to grow accustomed to managing COVID with the same level-headedness and common sense that we exercise in managing other challenging areas of our daily lives.

In this regard, foremost in our minds as we observe the religious and other aspects of the all-important Easter season, will be our necessity to faithfully wash hands, sanitize, practice social distancing, wear our masks in public places and access proper ventilation. These well established and proven healthy practices will, at this time of the new variant, be as beneficial to us now as they have shown themselves to be in our past success.

Let me thank the members of the public for your high level of support that has been greatly encouraging and look forward to more of the same as we press ahead with our management of this pandemic.

Happy and responsible Easter to all.

Thank you.

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9 COMMENTS

  2. WARNING, WARNING!

    The lull before the return of the “vaccine mandate”. Remember what the pharmaceuticals, politicians and the Bill Gates Foundation tried to do with the Omnicron variant?

    FOOL ME ONCE, SHAME ON YOU, FOOL ME TWICE, SHAME ON ME …

    WARNING, WARNING!

    • WARNING, WARNING!

      Lovell wants to takes us back to the IMF, PERSONAL INCOME TAX, LUIS FRANCA, UPP CHOKSI CAMPAIGN FINANCING, SANDALS KEEP GOV’T ABST, BADPLAY JOANNE MASSIAH and RICHARD LEWIS

      WARNING, WARNING!

      #LestWeForget #Warning #SoundTheAlarm #UPPwreckedOurCountry #NeverAgain!

  3. Topic is Omicron variant.
    Political prostitutes will always look to include politics condemn the next prime minister in the waiting

  4. PEER REVIEWED STUDY SAYS 36 VENOM’S FOUND IN COVID-19 POSITIVE GROUP AND NOT FOUND IN NEGATIVE GROUP.

    Background: SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 disease and led to the pandemic currently affecting the world has been broadly investigated. Different studies have been performed to understand the infection mechanism, and the involved human genes, transcripts and proteins. In parallel, numerous clinical extra-pulmonary manifestations co-occurring with COVID-19 disease have been reported and evidence of their severity and persistence is increasing. Whether these manifestations are linked to other disorders co-occurring with SARS-CoV-2 infection, is under discussion. In this work, we report the identification of toxin-like peptides in COVID-19 patients by application of the Liquid Chromatography Surface-Activated Chemical Ionization – Cloud Ion Mobility Mass Spectrometry.

    Methods: Plasma, urine and faecal samples from COVID-19 patients and control individuals were analysed to study peptidomic toxins’ profiles. Protein precipitation preparation procedure was used for plasma, to remove high molecular weight proteins and efficiently solubilize the peptide fraction; in the case of faeces and urine, direct peptide solubilization was employed.

    Results: Toxin-like peptides, almost identical to toxic components of venoms from animals, like conotoxins, phospholipases, phosphodiesterases, zinc metal proteinases, and bradykinins, were identified in samples from COVID-19 patients, but not in control samples.

    Conclusions: The presence of toxin-like peptides could potentially be connected to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Their presence suggests a possible association between COVID-19 disease and the release in the body of (oligo-)peptides almost identical to toxic components of venoms from animals. Their involvement in a large set of heterogeneous extra-pulmonary COVID-19 clinical manifestations, like neurological ones, cannot be excluded. Although the presence of each individual symptom is not selective of the disease, their combination might be related to COVID-19 by the coexistence of the panel of the here detected toxin-like peptides. The presence of these peptides opens new scenarios on the aetiology of the COVID-19 clinical symptoms observed up to now, including neurological manifestations.

  5. Virus variants and now Ba.2 Sub Variant… the alleged mutations continue marching along.
    Seems we are going to be under ‘attack’ for an indeterminable amount of time.

    How are we as people going to respond to yet another spike in covid’s variants cases?
    Are we going to once again follow government’s ‘guidelines’ that have continually failed us for over the past two years?

    What has these two years taught us?
    1) That lockdowns don’t work.
    2) That masks don’t work.
    3) That social distancing doesn’t work.
    4) That the vaccines and boosters don’t work.

    What is that old saying?
    “To continue to do the same thing over and over again, hoping for a different result is by definition, insanely stupid” !

    I hope y’all have learned something about how to respond to this situation during our lengthily learning curve and not repeat our past mistakes.

    I don’t know about ya’ll but I’m never going to wear a mask again! I’m done with all that non-sense.

    • So, what has been shown to work to fight off covid and it’s alleged variants?
      There have been a lot of studies showing these a sensible strategies:
      1) Keep your natural immune system healthy.
      2) Eat healthy, especially get some purple foods in your diet.
      3) Get your daily dose of sunshine (Vitamin D) – Closing the beaches was just plain dumb!
      4) Daily doses of vitamins, especially: C, D3, Zinc and Quercetin ( a zinc ionophore)
      5) Ivermectin and/or Hydroxychloroquine
      6) Budesonide ( ingredient in asthma inhalers)
      7) Nicotine patches or gum (only 5% of smokers got covid)

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