KINGSTOWN, St Vincent (CMC) — St Vincent and the Grenadines recorded its second COVID-19 death on Monday.
The deceased is an 80-year-old male who was admitted to the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital on Friday with complications of a chronic non-communicable disease, the National Emergency Management Organisation (NEMO) said in a press statement.
“The elderly gentleman tested positive for COVID-19 during the routine screening conducted on all admissions,” the statement added.
“The patient who was managed on the COVID-19 Isolation Ward became unstable and died at 4:30 am today, January 18, 2021.”
The death followed the first COVID-19 death on Friday, January 15 — that of a 49-year-old female with multiple pre-existing conditions.
NEMO said then that the woman presented to the hospital services the previous evening with difficulty breathing.
She was confirmed to be positive for COVID-19 on admission, rapidly deteriorated and died at 5:00 pm on Friday.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves extended condolences to the family of the woman, whom he identified as Jestina Pompey.
“I know Jestina. Of course, she’s Spiritual Baptist Archbishop [Melford] Pompey’s sister,” he said on WE FM.
“I paid my respects to him and the family already by telephoning him. He told me, without any prompting or anything, that Jestina had really serious pre-existing conditions. We don’t need to mention them and the press release did address serious pre-existing conditions. She was a good and gentle soul,” Gonsalves said.
NEMO said on Monday that 494 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in SVG as of Sunday.
Of these, 118 people have recovered, 374 cases remain active and two people with COVID-19 have died.
