18th November 2020

St Lucia records 5 new cases of coronavirus, all from Castries in the last 24 hours

By Ministry of Health

Today Wednesday November 18, 2020, the Ministry of Health received confirmation of five new cases of COVID-19.

This brings the total number of cases diagnosed in country to date to 183.

Case #179 is a 49 year old female from the Castries district
Case #180 is a 12 year old male from the Castries district
Case #181 is a 53 year old male from the Castries district
Case #182 is a 20 year old male from the Castries district
Case #183 is a 59 year old female from the Castries district

All of these individuals, after being assessed and tested for COVID-19, were placed in quarantine by health practitioners while awaiting receipt of their test results.

Two of these cases were identified through the contact tracing process and an epidemiological link has been established for these two cases.

Case #181 is linked to case #162.

Case #183 is linked to case #164.

Investigations are ongoing to determine the existence of any additional epidemiological links associated with these cases.

As per protocol, arrangements have been made to place these individuals into care.

We again ask every citizen to embrace the efforts to minimize the threat of COVID-19 nationally.

It is important to make the protocols part of your daily routine to protect the health of every individual and to minimize the impact of the virus on our country as a whole.

In addition, it is important that we also take action to maintain our personal health and well-being.

These measures will assist in building strong immune systems which will improve resistance to the virus and prevent severe forms of illnesses:

– Eating a healthy balanced diet, including fruits and vegetables daily
– Regular daily intake of water instead of sugary drinks and beverages
– Daily physical activity
– Limit intake of alcohol and avoid its misuse and abuse
– Do not smoke as apart from its risk for chronic illness it also leads to lung damage and worsens respiratory illnesses like COVID-19

Doing these alongside the infection prevention and control guidelines of hand hygiene, use of a face mask in public places and maintaining a separation of six feet when in public will help to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

If experiencing flu-like symptoms, keep away from others and seek medical care immediately at the closest respiratory clinic.

The Ministry of Health and Wellness will continue providing updates as new information becomes available.

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