Health Minister commends ‘front-liners’ for keeping COVID-19 death toll in check

– but calls on citizenry to do their part also

REGARDED as national heroes the world over, healthcare workers are the ones who have been on the frontline, valiantly battling with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), and at great risk to themselves and their families, to help slow its spread and limit the deadly toll it exacts on a country’s population.
As a medical doctor by profession, Dr. Frank Anthony knows only too well what’s at stake in a crisis such as the one precipitated by COVID-19, even though he only recently took over the reins of the Health Ministry, and as such was moved to commend said “frontliners”, as they’re called in the medical field, for their show of strength, wit and sacrifice, even while under enormous pressure.

As he was at pains to point out to the viewing public during a COVID-19 update over the weekend, despite the fact that the number of cases have been exponentially on the increase here, our healthcare professionals are working beyond the call of duty, and drawing on all their best-practice skills to prevent severely ill patients from dying.
“They have been trained in understanding the disease clinically, and how to respond to that… So I want the public to understand that from a treatment point of view; from a clinical point of view, we are doing all that we can at this present moment, but, unfortunately, as at other places where this is taking place, we will see deaths,” Dr. Anthony said.
He went on to explain that approximately 80 per cent of all those infected with the disease present with mild symptoms, and that only 20 per cent of those whose tests proved positive would require a stint in hospital. He, however, warned that of that lot, about four per cent would need to spend time in the Intensive Care Unit; and the bad news is that some will make it, and some won’t.

“Generally, they are very critical, and in terms of the treatment that we are offering, we will provide the best that we can offer right now, but unfortunately, we will lose some of those patients, because there are various challenges with treating the disease,” Dr. Anthony said.
Health professionals have cautioned that persons have a higher risk of dying from COVID-19 if their immune systems are already battling with a communicable or non-communicable disease. And the rationale here is that a weakened immune system increases the body’s ability to fight off new infections.

As such, the fight against the virus is one that will need all hands on deck, which is why persons are religiously reminded to adhere to all COVID-19 protocols for the safety of themselves and their families.

Warning that the emergency protocols to help slow the spread of the virus will be extended, Minister Anthony said:
“We are going to extend the orders. The specific measures that are going to be in place have been discussed with various people; there is no one-size-fits-all for the whole country, because different areas of the country would require different measures to be put in place. And that’s how we will be addressing it.”
In closing, he disclosed that an analysis conducted by the Ministry of Health has determined that it was necessary to extend the orders, based on the epidemiological situation in each region; which speaks to the distribution patterns of the virus and the factors affecting the health and disease conditions in particular populations.
Additionally, specific measures will be taken in regions where there has been a spike in new cases within the last two weeks.

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