Cabinet said on Wednesday that the Infectious Diseases Control Center was out of beds as more COVID-19 patients required hospitalization.
This is the first time the government reported that all 17 beds were taken at the facility that was built last year.
The government constructed the IDC to treat patients with severe COVID-19 and other infectious diseases.
It also retrofitted the national technical training Center building on Nugent Avenue to create a 75bed medical facility.
“We anticipate if worse should become us, and if there is an increased demand for more beds for persons who are going to be in isolation that we would begin to put into effect the use of the facilities at Nugent Avenue as well,” Information Minister Melford Nicholas told the journalists.
Nicholas said that the medical team at the IDC generally treated patients requiring oxygen therapy while patients who needed ventilators to breathe were typically treated at the Mount St. John’s Medical Center.
“We have a sufficient number of ventilators and I believe that the rotations that are taking place because of the 14-day cycle there are not many persons who have become acutely ill,” Nicholas added.
He said this was in contrast to the early stage of the pandemic, “Let’s say last year where we’ve had one person who had a record nine weeks on ventilator.
“From the information that the Ministry of health has shared with the cabinet they are sufficiently equipped at this particular stage,” Nicholas said.
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Wow so covid positive at MSJMC. Not just infectious disease centre.
The Medical Unit at MSJMC is being used as an IDC-#2 center for patients who have spilled over from IDC-Margetson. In that same wing are also sick non-COVID patients. Talk about visionary leadership- gimme a break @Sideline
For months we have been asking
Does msjmc have a dedicated infectious disease isolation room(s) with separe air handling than rest of hospital & dedicated nurse/doctors who do not work with other patients.
CMO, Sir Health, Director of MSJMC have never answered specifically.
Dear reader, be vigilant, follow personal protocols consistently, stay out of MSJMC.
A na now a long time. We na even have prove anybody in the center.
Ok then.
OK then what????
I guess Pringle still questioning the wisdom of spending money building capacity for exactly these situations when they occur.
And State of Emergency is not needed to try and control this
Thank God we have a government with more vison than the UPP will ever have
FROM THE SIDELINE you are celebrating already the visionary government. What vision exactly are you talking about? The government’s handling of the covid crisis has be lethargic and reactionary. Let us look at just one example i.e., the closing of our borders. Did the government close our borders in the early stages of the pandemic when it would perhaps have been wise and visionary to do so? The answer is NO. Our borders were closed inadvertently and unintentionally when the airlines themselves cancelled flights to the island. Did the government in a visionary and proactive manner decided to close the borders to keep us safe? FROM THE SIDELINE please keep your visionary plaudits of the government to yourself. I sincerely hope that things settle down in the island and the numbers continue to decline instead of the weekly increases, so we will have no need to use the Nugent Avenue Hospital.
I know you and I will never ever see eye to eye on these things so lets leave it like that. I have my opinion you have yours. You are naming things that I can easily rebut. Like investing in the Infectious Decease Centre was one of those visionary things. Turning the building on Lady Nugent Avenue into a hospital is visionary. Extending the SOE is visionary. Not going to the IMF will eventually be seen as something very visionary.
And by the way I’m not celebrating these things. I just thank God for the wisdom he is giving our leaders every day. Leading our nation. I mean had they not limit all these parties during the Xmas and New Years season who knows how many mre cases we would have. And we do not gloath in the missary of others. We show compasion. That is what our PM did when Barbados showed increases in cases. Others that are gloathing too bad for them. Lets hope things remain good for them. God only knows the future. What I keep saying I’m glad the UPP is not in control of this country at this time. Caus listening to what they are saying we would be long time with cap in hand at the IMF’s door. And money would be finished by now. Poverty would be rampant.
The question is where is the government getting money from when they say tax revenue is down by more than 50-%? We might find out later that the lender is worse than the IMF and most of the lands in Antigua are owned by foreigners who loaned the government money. Either this or the government is taking money from the people’s money it has hidden somewhere.
It really baffles you guys how this administration is able to keep the ship of state afloat. I heard Darren asking Max the same questions.
But the PM has explained the entire thing, but you guys just cannot count so it looks unbelievable to you all.
Who will staff Nugent Ave? Are any doctors being hired? Did funds budgeted for this second hospital only include construction?
A Very Good Question. As we’re already severely short-staffed at hospital
Exactly
I wonder how the inside of the retrofitted National Technical Training Centre building on Nugent Ave looks, because from the outside is sure looks like work was abandoned. And this coincides with the same time works were speeded up for the completion of the new ABLP Headquarters next door.
Indeed
FROM THE SIDELINE you are celebrating already the visionary government. What vision exactly are you talking about? The government’s handling of the covid crisis has be lethargic and reactionary. Let us look at just one example i.e., the closing of our borders. Did the government close our borders in the early stages of the pandemic when it would perhaps have been wise and visionary to do so? The answer is NO. Our borders were closed inadvertently and unintentionally when the airlines themselves cancelled flights to the island. Did the government in a visionary and proactive manner decided to close the borders to keep us safe? FROM THE SIDELINE please keep your visionary plaudits of the government to yourself. I sincerely hope that things settle down in the island and the numbers continue to decline instead of the weekly increases, so we will have no need to use the Nugent Avenue Hospital.
It’s unfortunate how some are quick to bestow honor on a politician, in the midst of an increasingly volatile economic and health crisis.
Let us get through this most difficult period in the history of the world, before we start giving honors to politicians.
Yes
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