A Vincentian who has returned to St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) after recent travel to China has been placed under quarantine in light of the presence of coronavirus in the Asian nation, the Ministry of Health said late Friday.
The person is in good health and has shown no sign of the illness, which has claimed hundreds of lives in China, affected thousands more and has spread to several countries.
“The public is advised that a Vincentian national who was in China has returned home. This person is in good health and shows no sign of fever, cough or any other symptom associated with the novel coronavirus. Additionally, the individual reported no contact with anyone with novel coronavirus infection,” the ministry said in a press release.
The ministry said that the individual is under quarantine and will be monitored daily by health professionals for 14 days in keeping with protocols for persons entering the country with travel history to Mainland China.
“The isolation is
purely a precautionary measure,” the statement said.
The ministry further reminded residents of SVG that non-essential travel to
China is currently not recommended and that all persons arriving in SVG who
have been in China within 14 days of their arrival in SVG will be quarantined.
“The ministry is committed to protecting the health of the nation,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, at a press conference on Monday, Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Roger Duncan, said that in response to the coronavirus, health officials have improved surveillance at ports of entry in SVG, particularly at the Argyle International Airport and Port Kingstown.
He noted SVG’s porous borders and multiple ports, adding that this is a significant challenge.
“It’s something that we’re every day grappling with, and we’re trying to see how best we can respond,” Duncan said.
The senior health official said that SVG does not have all the human resources it might need to respond to an outbreak of coronavirus in the country.
“… so there is need to work much more closer with our counterparts, particularly with Customs and Immigration, in building their capacity to be able to begin to detect that something might be wrong and therefore trigger what would be our response,” Duncan said.
Should we be very worried now that we are told that someone here is being quarantined, and “Eighty-six people die of coronavirus in a DAY in China as Beijing begins mass arrest of sufferers and videos shows hazmat suit-clad goons dragging people from their homes as the death toll hits 724”?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7980883/Video-shows-officials-protective-suits-dragging-suspected-coronavirus-carriers-homes.html
“Is coronavirus ten times WORSE than feared? Leading scientist warns that only 10 per cent of cases are being identified by tests as virus spreads across the globe.” Are we here safe from the outbreak?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7979917/Is-coronavirus-ten-times-WORSE-feared.html
What are we to make of the Government’s assurance that all is well, keeping in mind their cavalier approach to Vincentian health matters? What should we be doing personally in the circumstance?
Some serious shit.
I ask myself why quarantine one person arriving on a flight, in good health and has shown no sign of the illness and not all the others on the same flight also? Could this one individual be an incubator of the virus that fail to spread during travel and only show up within the 14 days if present? Help me make sense of this? As the Uk quarantines all passengers on flights from the affected region, why is this situation so different? Let’s talk about this. Lack of means to handle all passengers could be sited as one of the reasons I am sure, so why take risk with allowing a whole ship and passengers too disembark on our tiny Island?
Dammed if you do and Dammed if you don’t….??
We are but a very small population that are inhabiting these islands that could be so easily wiped out and very quickly too, simply because we just do not have the way with it all to deal with this kind of medical problem, therefore we ought to be most careful indeed in our approach to this spreading worldwide virus rather than taking a very cavalier approach.
So “How does coronavirus spread and how can you protect yourself”?
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/01/coronavirus-spread-protect-200130115539072.html
“Almost 43,000 people worldwide have been infected by the new coronavirus, which continues to spread to more countries since it was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December.
At least 1,016 people have died so far in mainland China, as well as one person in Hong Kong and another in the Philippines. Almost all the fatalities in China have been in Hubei province, the capital of which – Wuhan – is where the virus first originated”.
Therefore compliancy is not an option my dear AL FRANCO!
A reliance on tourism is akin to economical slavery we are a means to some else’s ends which does not garner consideration or respect as the Maldives and countless ex-colonials and ySVG’s crown subjects have found out…