by Kevon Browne
St. Kitts and Nevis (WINN): As of Friday, September 10, the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis has recorded one additional COVID-19 related death bringing the death toll to seven deaths.
Additionally, 209 confirmed cases of COVID-19 were recorded for this week, Sept. 6 – 10.
Numbers comparable with last week’s 177 recorded cases for the period August 30 – Sept. 4.
One hundred and fifty cases were recorded for St. Kitts and 59 cases for Nevis.
In the last situation report, No. 529, the total case count for SKN is 1,439 total cases. This week Nevis also recorded its first COVID-19 related death on Sept. 9, death number six.
On the vaccination front, 393 doses were administered this week; 387 were first doses and six-second.
The acceptance of the Pfizer vaccine since its rollout on Sept. 1 averages about 60 doses a day.
During the last press conference, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Hazel Laws reminded us that the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to be with us for a while.
“We are engaged in a long war against COVID-19. We’ve been responding to COVID-19 [since] January of last year, so it’s been near 18 to 20 months since we have been responding to this pandemic. There is COVID fatigue, and some of us can speak to anger, denial and all the other emotions, but we need to be patient… and we need to endure because it’s through endurance that we will win this fight. We need to use the tools that are available to us in terms of fighting a good fight,” shared Dr. Laws.
What are the tools?
“The vaccine, the COVID-19 vaccine, is the best tool that we have in terms of fighting this fight. We want those who have not yet come on board to empower themselves with the latest information and do come on board and accept the vaccine. We have the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, and the Ministry of Health, the government, we trying to get our hands on another batch of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine because we are aware that there are a number of individuals who received their first dose, they have an appointment to come back in 12 weeks for the second dose. And so, we are trying our very best to get to another patch of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine. The wearing of the face mask provides significant protection against the virus, maintaining adequate hand hygiene helps to protect you from the virus, maintaining an adequate distance between others when in the public domain is also another protective measure. And if you are experiencing any of the COVID like symptoms. We are asking you to stay at home… School is open, so I’m pleading with the parents of children. If your child is experiencing any of the COVID-19 symptoms, please keep your child at home, do not send your child to school, [and] expose your child to other students.”
The symptoms to look out for are: headaches, an altered sense of taste and smell, joint pain, dry cough, diarrhea, nausea, body aches, and fever.
