14 test positive for COVID-19 in Warapoka

Health officials in Barima-Waini (Region One) are closely monitoring 14 cases of COVID-19 in Warapoka.

Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony said the diagnoses were made by teams monitoring Kwebanna and nearby communities.

“In another area in Region One, that’s at Warapoka, we have noticed about 14 cases, so that’s a community that we will be monitoring as well. We have sent in medical teams; we did some swabbing and because we did the swabbing there that’s how we were able to detect these cases.

“So, our medical team would be more active in that community and hopefully, we can bring whatever cases we have quickly under control,” the Minister said in his COVID-19 update on Friday.

Meanwhile, Dr. Anthony said he was pleased with the progress at Kwebanna. He said the reducing numbers are a direct result of the Ministry’s strong collaboration with the village council and residents adhering to self-quarantine measures.

“We have reduced the numbers there significantly, and yesterday we had 37. I expect that to go down even further today as we do some discharges today,” he said.

Minister Anthony said the techniques used in Region One are being implemented in St. Cuthbert’s Mission.

“What we try to do is to have a lockdown. We work with the Village Council, we talk to the residents, we do the education on what is COVID-19, what you need to do to prevent transmission of COVID-19, and of course, we do testing on a large scale, identify those who are positive and isolate them, to prevent transmission. So those things are what we have repeated at St. Cuthbert’s Mission and hopefully we will start seeing a decline in numbers,” he said.

The results from some 104 samples taken from the community on Thursday will be available on Friday evening, even as testing continues there. (Department of Public Information)