COVID-19 treatment areas created @ Dr D. Orlando Smith Hospital
“We have two floors of the Major Peebles Wing of the Dr D. Orlando Smith Hospital, we have the plans in place now, the team have been working over the weekend to make sure that they can retrofit those rooms so that we can have an isolation area,” he said on Public Radio ZBVI 780am during the ‘Honestly Speaking’ radio show.
COVID-19 case confirmed in Jamaica
With Jamaica, yesterday March 10, 2020, confirming its first COVID-19 case, three other Caribbean countries, notably Dominican Republic, St Martin, and St Barts have already confirmed cases of the virus in within their borders.
According to Hon Malone, given pressures to ready the territory, the race now on to ensure facilities are available, “So If we ever had to occasion where we have to isolate, no only quarantine people, but isolate people, then we can do this at the facility that we are now preparing.”
He said the facility will be prepared for about 20-24 beds with separate areas for ‘negative pressure’ as a measure to keep people outside the isolation areas safe. A negative pressure room ensures that the air inside the area does not escape, thus preventing cross-contamination from room to room.
Rapid schedule
According to Hon Malone, the area is being created on a 'rapid schedule' to prepare the hospital in the event that the virus comes to the territory.
“They worked over the weekends with the architects, they have to make sure that all of what is required to depressurize the room that we have that done, so we are going to have that out as soon as we possibly can,” he said.
On March 2, 2020, Hon Malone revealed that some $3M in special funding has been earmarked towards Coronavirus preparedness and response.
Additional measures implemented includes enhanced health surveillance, testing and quarantine of persons of interest, increased sanitation measures, passenger screening, and staff training at all Ports-of-Entry as well as the issuance of travel guidance for affected countries.
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11 Responses to “COVID-19 treatment areas created @ Dr D. Orlando Smith Hospital”
The following is a sample of action being taken by South Korea: “South Korea, hit early and hard by coronavirus, has responded by embracing voluntary social distancing, testing massively, making public health communication a priority, cleaning public spaces like there is no tomorrow and investing in a broad range of measures to blunt the economic impacts of the outbreak.” The BVI can benchmark some or all of the actions.
The BVI is an open and a democratic territory with many freedoms. Nonetheless, to prevent, contain.....etc the virus some freedoms that residents have grown accustomed/entitled to may need to be curtailed, ie, mass gatherings, quarantines, territory being placed under a national emergency, travel restricts..........etc. The pandemic declaration does not mean panic. It entails planning, programme, policy, procedure, process, politics, public health......etc. It should not mean tribal politics.
The BVI filip workers are back and forth travelling through affected countries thialand,Japan,philipines. what is government doing?