(Barbados Today) -For the second consecutive day, Barbados has recorded 12 cases of COVID-19, Health Minister Lt. Col. Jeffrey Bostic has announced.
At a news conference this evening, Bostic said yesterday’s reports from the Best-Dos Santos Public Health Laboratory revealed that 270 people were tested — 216 of whom arrived aboard flights from the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as on Caribbean Airlines.
He said the six women and six men testing positive yesterday were all citizens or residents of Barbados who were returning home. All 12 are asymptomatic.
The Minister said with the return of commercial flights to Barbados, these numbers are to be expected, adding that Barbados will not prevent its citizens and residents who want to return home from doing so.
“It is the moral responsibility of the Government to allow our citizens to return to this country and we believe that we have the facilities, we have the capacity and we also have the expertise to be able to receive our citizens, no matter what condition they may be in,” Bostic said.
“The overwhelming majority of the now 132 positive COVID cases Barbados has recorded are Barbadian citizens or residents.”
The Minister assured that isolation facilities at Harrison’s Point, St. Lucy, are well able to cope with the numbers being seen so far, and are fully staffed to meet the needs of those recovering there.
Bostic noted that even though the numbers are rising, Barbados has not had a COVID-19 patient in the intensive care unit in the last six weeks.
“In the days ahead, there will be more arrivals, and one can reasonably expect more cases, but do not be alarmed by this, we are aware that the risk is ever present,” the Health Minister said.
