Basseterre, St. Kitts, November 18, 2021 (SKNIS): The Government of St. Kitts and Nevis, through the efforts of the Ministry of Health, has successfully curbed the third wave of COVID-19 infections. During the November 17, 2021, NEOC press briefing, Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Dr. Hazel Laws indicated that both the hospitalization and infection rates across the Federation continue to decline, thanks to the success of the vaccination programme.
“We have done a good job so far in terms of containing the third wave of infections, and so over this past week we have only added twenty-six (26) new cases. So the case count for this past week is twenty-six (26), eighteen (18) cases less than the previous week. We have only admitted one (1) individual to the hospital over this period and we have discharged two (2) COVID-19 positive patients and we’ve had sixty-two (62) recoveries also during this period,” said CMO Laws.
Also announced during the NEOC press briefing was another COVID-19 related death, bringing the total number of deaths to twenty-eight (28). Dr. Laws indicated that that individual was not vaccinated against COVID-19.
Moreover, the Chief Medical Officer stated that the majority of COVID-19 related deaths in St. Kitts and Nevis are persons who were unvaccinated against the deadly virus.
“When you analyze the demographic data of the individuals who would have died, we realize that eighty-six (86) percent of the twenty-eight (28) cases the individuals were unvaccinated, while sixty-eight (68) percent were over the age of sixty years old. This data is really telling us that if you are an older adult, meaning sixty years and over, and is unvaccinated, coupled with one of the chronic non-communicable diseases or if you have a number of comorbidities, your risk of becoming COVID-19 positive is increased and so is your risk of progressing to moderate or severe COVID-19. When we look at the data regarding the positive cases, we realize that seventy (70) percent of the cases were not vaccinated and so again if you are in the Federation and unvaccinated your risk of being diagnosed with COVID-19 is significant,” said CMO Laws.
An extensive audit of the St. Kitts and Nevis vaccine data was conducted in collaboration with Epidemiologist, Dr. Rafael Rosales and Ms. Akila Moore, Medical Statistician at the Health Information Unit of the Ministry of Health. As of November 17, 2021, 79.4 percent of the adult target population had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 72.8 percent of adults are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
