
The most recent results received by the Ministry Health Wellness and the Environment from the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) revealed no new laboratory-confirmed case of COVID-19.
The total number of persons with laboratory confirmation of the disease in Antigua and Barbuda, therefore, remains at twentyfour (24).
Of the five samples last sent to CARPHA, three were repeat tests for persons who previously tested positive for COVID-19. One of the three repeat tests was reported as negative. This brings the total number of persons with no symptoms and negative results to eleven (11).
The other two repeat tests were positive and these patients remain hospitalized.
The Ministry of Health Wellness and the Environment thanks the public for cooperating with
the measures associated with the State of Emergency. While there has been no increase in the number of new cases, Antigua and Barbuda must not become complacent. The Ministry urges the nation to maintain its defense to prevent a resurgence or increase in the number of new COVID-19 cases in Antigua and Barbuda.
The Ministry, therefore, urges the public to remain vigilant in practicing social distancing,
proper cough and sneeze etiquette, hand washing, and sanitizing which are critical in the
nation’s fight against COVID-19.
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We need to test 100’s of people.
Yes, especially all of these people who have suddenly died and their contacts.
So any of you buying or making the testing kits? Maybe y’all don’t follow the news outside of Antigua. The test kids are very hard to get so it would be unwise to use what little is there to test a person who is showing now symptoms. That all you people do just sit down behind one phone and chat shit.
Hey chupz, maybe I read too much. In Italy Lombardy has more fatalities than Veneto. Veneto took a much more proactive tack towards the containment of the virus. Veneto’s strategy was multi-pronged:
Extensive testing of symptomatic and asymptomatic cases early on.
Proactive tracing of potential positives. If someone tested positive, everyone in that patient’s home as well as their neighbors were tested. If testing kits were unavailable, they were self-quarantined.
A strong emphasis on home diagnosis and care. Whenever possible, samples were collected directly from a patient’s home and then processed in regional and local university labs.
Specific efforts to monitor and protect health care and other essential workers. They included medical professionals, those in contact with at-risk populations (e.g., caregivers in nursing homes), and workers exposed to the public (e.g., supermarket cashiers, pharmacists, and protective services staff).
Yes testing can be a good tool, but when you face the shortages many countries face, you have to resort to other options. New York (2 million less persons than Lombardy and 3 million more than Veneto.) where some 770K persons have been tested (antigen) yet some 16.5K persons have died . Lombardy has seen about 11,377 deaths, yet is larger than NY and has not done as much testing. Essentially NY tested at least 9% of their population while for Veneto it was 4.4%. Point is there are other factors than simply testing (eg. Timing for when things like social distancing started, lock down timings, what’s the strength of persons immune system, leadership messaging, strength of your heath system etc.) I am reading that despite the lock down persons from Veneto traveled to nearby towns and went to bars. Infact they had a initial lock down for 2 days and then removed the restrictions on bars and restaurants right after. May I suggest if you have not done so that you take a read of “COVID-19 deaths in Lombardy, Italy: data in context” in the lancet.
correction instead of “despite the lock down persons from Veneto ” that should have been “despite the lock down persons from Lombardy”
Really, where is the logic in that! We are not using logic in this island! The virus is not wide spread as those UPP people had hoped! They trying to use fear of the virus to bring down the government! People like Elii Fuller, who have money, and I mean lots of money can afford to preach fear! Time we wake up the rich only want us poorer.
So, if it is up to you, there would be no more testing so that we will never truly know how much Coronavirus is out there. Idiot! This is not about UPP or rich/poor. It is about managing the virus properly so that many do not die. Only fools like you shout at people who ask for more testing so we will have more scientific proof of the spread of the virus.
@Not so common, is it that you wish to know who had it, or who has it? If the former we can do a random antibody sample of some 1K persons in the near future. It is the WHO guideline that if you lack resources to test (antigen) that you at least test those with symptoms and utilize things like social distancing and lock downs, quarantines, isolation to deal with others. It is the WHO who has set the policy that when using the lab in TNT
(The Caribbean Public Health Agency: CARPHA) we should only send samples from those showing symptoms. Don’t want to believe me? Here is SKN’s CMO:
“She(Dr. Laws) said that samples of persons with symptoms or symptomatic patients are sent to the CARPHA Laboratory in Trinidad for processing. However, CARPHA does not process samples from asymptomatic contacts of COVID-19 patients.
“In other words, CARPHA does not process samples from patients who are contacts of COVID-19 who do not have symptoms.” see St. Kitts And Nevis Enjoys One Of The Highest Rates Of Testing For The COVID-19 Virus In The Eastern Caribbean And CARICOM, On Apr 21, 2020 ZIZonline
SKN has done more tests (286 persons and has about half our population size) than us because they have a local privately owned lab called Next Generation Medical Laboratory. It would be helpful if A&B can have such a facility because it can cut down on the number of persons who are unnecessarily quarantined. Yes the date keeps moving but to suggest we are more at risk is wrong since in the meantime those persons are quarantined. However, the idea that we will within the next 30 days test (antigen) mass amounts of persons is unrealistic, even if we had local testing. Lets admit that even if we had tested 600 persons (double SKN), persons here will still be saying that # is too low
Timing is also very important in when covid measures to contain the spread are implemented.The duration of these measures is also important. Fact is there are locations that have tested (antigen)much more (New York, US at least 9% so far of its population)than others yet has more deaths than areas who have tested less of their’s (Veneto, Italy 4.4%).
You are ridiculous! Do you think all these people dying is fake?
So only 2 tests were new suspected cases…….. 2!
Where is the local testing? Why is it taking so long for us to do our own mass testing when every other island doing it LONG TIME!!!
What island doing “mass” testing? You guys really need to stop. Yes SKN (half our pop size) is doing more extensive testing than us, but its not mass testing. To date they have tested 286 persons(antigen tests). This happened because they have a private lab, established in 2019, that’s doing their testing for persons without symptoms (persons found during contact tracing who have no symptoms). SLU with stop and starts for local testing has done 446 tests (double our population size). Due to our current inability to do same, we quarantine them (persons found during contact tracing who have no symptoms) for a longer period than SKN who can quickly release hem once they test negative. The new and too often moving date for our local testing is by next weekend
go to worldometers.info and you’ll see that most other Caribbean nations have tested a much greater percentage of their population than Antigua has
Again there is no OECS island doing mass testing. The info I provided regarding persons tested is inline with worldometers. Fact is St. Vincent and Grenada have similar testing #’s to A&B. Note however that worldometers is about number of tests not persons tested. Let me remind you that in NY they have done more testing than practically anywhere else in the world (at least 9% of their pop, some 805K tests) yet they have more deaths per 1 million population than anywhere else. Hey don’t get me wrong, I want local testing since it provides an added tool. However in the meantime the quarantine method is still being utilized
Yes wadad 1! I hear yoi! Spoken by a typical, angry, loud mouthed simpleton that is proffering his simple solution to a simple pandemmic. Wonder what he thinks of Trump’s suggestion of injecting a disinfectant into the lungs of a patient in order to just zap the virus just, just so. This display of mental deterioration, I hope, is not a symptom of this disease!!!!
So then, if you think asking for more testing is a result of mental deterioration, what is your genius solution? Testing makes sense as it provides evidence of virus spread. I cannot stand fools who shout down common sense strategies and at the same time provide NO solutions whatsoever.
Agian for all you dense keyboard gansters are you going to make the damn testing kits? Do you think the tests are for free?. Do you think Trump the Dump going to give you any? Y’all done say y’all don’t want any from China. Some of you people on here so goddamn dunce it not even funny. Wish this site would disable the comment section cause some people just ah post pure shit like you can snap your finger and it happen.
Hey Smarty Chupz, how about we dunce are just dawn scared and do not want to leave any stone on turn. They should have testing kits since february. Covid-19 was in the news since late December to early January.
You do know the testing kits are used to collect the samples which are sent to Trinidad? Think you mean the reagent and similar that’s needed for the diagnostic part of local testing. The new date is end of next week. Yes we are all not happy with this but in the meantime those found during contact tracing who show no symptoms will continue to be quarantined for longer periods. Testing would help us better manage this aspect of it since only those found positive would be quarantined. hmm then there is the possibility of a false negative, perhaps it may be best to just continue quarantining until more accurate tests are developed?
““There is a roughly 20 to 30% false negative rate on COVID-19 RT-PCR tests,” said Dr. Brian Niedbalski, Bartholomew County health officer. “That number is fairly consistent nationwide. We understand false negatives are a possibility. That’s why patient education about isolating appropriately is so important.” see False negative: Health officials warn negative COVID-19 tests may not rule out infection
By Andy East – 4/25/20 7:36 PM
Bad news for the Covid Einsteins and detractors!
This still makes no sense in the way testing a are being done on island. You guys are being idiotical in the way you’re handling the covid situation in Antigua. Do you think 5-10 tests a week is showing a true reflection of the infected persons on island when most of those are repeated test? You simply need to do more tests spanning a wide area of the island, then we will know How contained it is. It took only one person in Jamaica and in such a short time frame ‘wam’ it’s spreading like wild fire. Antigua is a tiny place and it takes nothing for the entire island to become infected. Please do more testing that’s how we will ever combat this virus.
Is it going to be another month before local testing begins?
Since the first announcement of starting local testing I’ve acquired a beard.
All those students in quarantine needs to be tested before they leave the facility because we all know you can be positive for covid-19 but show no symptoms, then they go back home to family and possibly infect others.
Why waste some almost 50 tests? Quarantine and preach social distancing, hand washing etc..
Like a coin toss?
“There is a roughly 20 to 30% false negative rate on COVID-19 RT-PCR tests,” said Dr. Brian Niedbalski, Bartholomew County health officer. “That number is fairly consistent nationwide. We understand false negatives are a possibility. That’s why patient education about isolating appropriately is so important.” see False negative: Health officials warn negative COVID-19 tests may not rule out infection
By Andy East – 4/25/20 7:36 PM
So the 10 ppl from Parham not going to be tested?????
my question is to the minister for health; does Antigua have enough clorox to cover all the people who will need it, plus needles for injection, in the event of the second wave of infections that will arrive from the hotspots of the usa and uk as soon as the govt opens the airport, and how will you deal with the fact that all the local businesses that have slowly opened again now will have to close again, together with all the tourist businesses? Why doesnt Sandals and the others who have made billions of dollars from the island over the years now step in and provide for local workers instead of pushing to reopen?
Indeed we need to test more people.
At minimum, we could aim to be testing 100’s sick people (with Covid symptoms like high fever) who live in a household with individuals with very chronic underlying health issues, but even that is a lot of test to be done though. Note: in some countries there are drive-through testing capabilities.
The government should constantly be aiming to improve our testing capabilities. We are becoming more and more less dependent on CARPHA Medical Microbiology Laboratory (CMML), the regional reference laboratory. That is a great thing. Maybe Antigua and Barbuda can even aim to become one of the few regional reference laboratories. But that’s probably not practical.
Anyways, the limited amount of testing resources we have at our disposal versus the amount of individuals we have on the island with underlying health issues. Those are two factors that should pretty much be on the decision table when talking about slowly re-opening the country.
Mean while, let us all team up as one nation and fight against COVID-19 by “remaining vigilant in practicing social distancing, proper cough and sneeze etiquette, hand washing, and sanitizing.” And pray!
Agreed!
Me to sorry for a we Antigua people.when u want LIE check ALP GOVERMENT.
Please people use common sense, with or with out testing it is easy to tell we do not have widespread Corona Virus in this island! Dr. Thwaites said it right if the virus was wide spread we would have people flooding the hospital with symptoms! Again I say it is the people with money who want to lock down! Their fridges and freezers are full of food! We the local people soon run out of money with no way to feed our children! The government don’t have money to feed us and them rich who want lock down not going to give us anything! We to use our heads and common sense and stop making politics out of this! People are use fear to keep us indoors! Before the virus if you had a cold and got a heart attack you died of a heart attack! Now if you have Covid19 and get a heart attack you died of Covid19! Wake up people!
Another ignorant comment. Look up the word “root cause”
I am trying to think of what to say it’s really hard. We have tested 95 out of about 80,000 what’s the percentage, and like everyone feels good and happy about that, God I pray that this is true so life can get back to the norm.
There are areas where they have tested over 9% (New York) of their population yet still have the higher fatality rates than areas that tested much less. Its more than simply about testing persons, there are other measures which are more important eg social distancing, washing your hands, proper contact tracing etc.
We don’t know the fatality rate in Antigua since thus far they haven’t (or haven’t told the public) whether these sudden deaths are due to covid19. k
We also don’t know how widespread the virus is because they’ve tested a ridiculously small number of people and seem to be wasting a lot of tests on retesting positive people.
They keep saying no community spread or “minimal” community spread. They couldn’t possibly know whether that is true or not without testing a significant proportion of the population.
I am really sad reading the fighting in the comments. I’m usually one for a good debate but I also strongly believe in right from wrong regardless of which side of the political divide you fall. I’m not a fan of NewCo but their cartoon yesterday hit the nail on the head. COVID-19 has really exposed our true state here in Antigua. It’s is by the grace of God or pure luck depending on your religious beliefs that we are not in a worst situation with more infectious and more deaths. We are woefully unprepared for the potential devastation this thing can bring even a month and a half after our fist confirmed case. I just hope we stay blessed/lucky cause god knows we can’t manage.
I fear we are about to see how bad this thing can get in the coming weeks because the strategy so far seems to be to test as few people as possible to pretend that the problem is smaller than it is. I don’t know about or care about Antigua’s political issues as I am not Antiguan.
But the government needs to take this threat more seriously, not be loosening restrictions, testing testing testing, and not be talking about opening the borders any time soon.
They had a chance to eliminate the virus on this island in the same way that New Zealand is trying to. I fear that it may be too late for that now and things are going to get really bad.
Your comment is on point. We know he protects babies and Fools!
COVID19 is a tea cup storm.
Economic reset is the real danger…..
What’s up with all of the sudden death? Covid-19 or serial killer?
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