12th July 2020
Six American Airlines passengers test positive for coronavirus while others breaking quarantine in St Vincent
By IWN
IWN - St. Vincent and the Grenadines now has six new cases of COVID-19, according to the latest figures released on Sunday by the Coronavirus Taskforce.
The figures released shortly before 9 p.m. — about eight hours after Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves announced that the country had recorded two new cases from the American Airlines flight that arrived from Miami on Saturday.
The Coronavirus Taskforce offered no information on the new cases, saying only that the latest figures reflect the results received from the Caribbean Public Health Agency, in Trinidad.
“Our late update of the SVG Health Report was unavoidable as we follow our usual protocol of informing individuals of their results prior to dissemination. We apologize for this minor inconvenience,” the taskforce said in an 8:54 p.m. email to the media.
The National Emergency Management Organisation, which usually announces new cases of the virus in SVG, was yet to issue a statement.
Gonsalves had said that all 154 passengers who arrived on the flight had been tested at the lab in Kingstown and that CARPHA had confirmed the two positive results that he spoke of Sunday afternoon.
The prime minister had said that a number of persons who arrived on Saturday’s flight had broken their quarantine.
He said some of them going to Mangoz Restaurant and Bar on Saturday, and others to church Sunday.
On Wednesday, the prime minister had warned this week that his government was “not joking” about 24-hr isolation period for visitors.
On Sunday, however, he said his government wanted to use “moral suasion” rather than the amended Public Health Act which prescribes penalties of up to EC$2,000 per day for breach of quarantine.
With the latest results, SVG now has six active cases of the viral illness, taking the number of confirmed cases to 35 — 29 of whom have recovered.
The number of persons in quarantine is 110.
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