The Western Regional Health Authority (WRHA) this afternoon began community surveillance activity in Norwood, St. James. This comes on the heels of confirmation of several positive COVID-19 cases. The index case has been isolated in a government facility and so far 13 close contacts were tested, which resulted in seven positives, two negatives and four samples are pending.
Extensive surveillance is currently being carried out by some 40 members of the healthcare team including nurses, public health inspectors, public health nurses and community health aides. The team has begun house-to-house visits and assessing the residents for respiratory symptoms. Residents with symptoms and those who the health team deem are at high risk, will be tested for COVID-19 and quarantine orders served.
“We wish to remind the public of the need for increased vigilance in the maintenance of the quarantine orders that have been issued to persons who recently returned to the island. There is also the need to maintain the infection prevention and control practices such as the washing and sanitizing of hands frequently, the wearing of masks in public spaces and around persons who are in quarantine, the covering of coughs with a tissue and disposing of it in the nearest receptacle and the sanitizing of high frequency areas in your homes,” cautioned, Errol Green, Regional Director, WRHA.