Health Minister Dr. Irving McIntyre has revealed that there is no single positive case of Coronavirus in Dominica. While Dominica is the only island country in the OECS with the capacity to test for COVID-19, McIntyre said Dominica remains one of the few Caribbean countries without any single positive case of the disease.
“We have been carrying out numerous tests for the Coronavirus in Dominica over the past week, all the tests done so far have been negative,” he said. “This doesn’t mean that we will never get a case of the virus but at present we do not have any positive case of Coronavirus in Dominica”.
The Minister of Health made this announcement against the backdrop of news flying around that Dominica has positive cases of COVID-19. There is even a social media video showing an individual in a protective suit sanitizing a section of the ferry terminal in Roseau. McIntyre warned Dominicans to ignore any health information that did not emanate from official government sources since this could lead to widespread fear and panic.
“We are closely monitoring the scenario of COVID-19 and we will give you honest and factual updates as time goes along,” McIntyre said. “This is not a time for divisive action.”
He further disclosed that testing is done selectively on people with symptoms since this is the recommendation of the World Health Organization (WHO). He revealed that Coronavirus testing cannot be done ramdomly on everyone since this would amount to waste of vital resources such as test kits which are already in short supply around the world.
There are currently over 180,000 reported cases of the disease in 155 countries around the world, leading to more than 7,000 deaths and about 79,000 recoveries. McIntyre advised people to constantly wash their hands with soap and observe social distancing in public to prevent the spread of the disease.
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