Basseterre, St. Kitts, May 09, 2020 (SKNIS): The transmissibility of the Coronavirus within the federation has been contained, says Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Hazel Laws, during the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) COVID-19 Daily Briefing held on May 08.
Dr. Laws said that the statistic termed the Reproductive Number describes the level of contagiousness or transmissibility of the virus. “It gives you an idea with respect to the number of new cases that an existing case generates,” she said.
“Because of the public health measures that we employed here in the federation, we have been successful in reducing the reproductive number to less than one. Based on our data it’s about 0.3 to 0.6 and it’s because of this achievement we have been able to contain this first wave of infections,” she said.
Dr. Laws said that of the 15 confirmed cases only three cases transmitted the virus to one or two close contacts. The other 12 cases did not pass on the virus.
“Again, this is an achievement because of the stringent public health interventions that we employed,” she said.
The chief medical officer noted that of the total 212 contacts traced only five cases were positive.
As of May 09, 2020, a total of 56 persons are in quarantined in a government facility, one persons is quarantined at home and one person remains in isolation. There are now 14 cases that have recovered. The total number of persons released from quarantine stands at 756.
