National epidemiologist Dr. Shalauddin Ahmed has revealed that 600 residential homes will be targeted randomly for COVID-19 testing and surveillance. He declared that the exercise is already underway and that all members of a household will be tested using rapid test kits. Anyone found positive to coronavirus will be taken in for quarantine, treated in the hospital, and contact-tracing done to see who they have infected with the disease.
“We need to be sure how many symptomatic and asymptomatic cases are out in the community,” Dr. Ahmed said. “The main objective of this surveillance is to detect COVID-19 in those with symptoms within the community who are not seeking medical care as well as those who are asymptomatic roaming around in the community.”
Using handheld thermometer, rapid test kits, nasal swabs, and PCR confirmation, health workers will identify positive patients and make them to undergo isolation and treatment so that no one dies of the disease in Dominica. As at now, the country has not recorded a single coronavirus death and no new cases have been reported in the last 50 days while the 16 positive cases have been treated and discharged from hospital.
Ahmed said the Central Statistics Office has provided health officials with the list of names and addresses of the entire 600 homes to be covered in Roseau and Portsmouth among other communities in the country. Ten teams comprising of four persons per team have been deployed for the exercise, and each health district has been assigned one team to cover. Roseau has three teams and Portsmouth has two teams assigned.
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