Saint Lucia, an island nation in the Caribbean, has announced a 100% recovery rate for all 15 patients who had the coronavirus in the country. The country’s chief medical officer, Dr. Sharon Belmar-George, made the announcement on Wednesday.

“To date, all of the positive cases of COVID-19 in Saint Lucia have recovered, with the remaining two cases who were in isolation receiving negative COVID-19 results and have since been discharged from the hospital,” she said. “This now places Saint Lucia at the 100% recovery rate of all COVID-19 cases."

Belmar-George said the patients included people who were considered high risk, such as the elderly and individuals with chronic illness.

"They too recovered well, with no complications," the doctor said.

She added that laboratory testing is still continuing "locally and with the support of the Caribbean Public Health Agency laboratory."

“Saint Lucia has modified its testing strategy by increasing the testing on the number of samples from the community respiratory clinics. This would assist us in the assessment of COVID-19 locally,” Belmar-George said.

Still, the island is enforcing a partial shutdown and curfew from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m.

"We remain at a very critical position in the implementation of the national response to the COVID-19 threat," the chief medical officer said. "Large-scale public health and social measures have been implemented in an effort to break the transmission of COVID-19 when in-country transmission was noted. The country must note that many of these measures need to be sustained in an effort to achieve low COVID-19 levels in country.”

The island's measures include "school closure, national zoning to manage population movement, the closure of non-essential businesses, travel restrictions, the partial national shutdown and the instituting of a 24-hour curfew.”

The country's officials also emphasized the "use of masks, testing, isolation, treatment of sick persons and adoption of hygiene and other infection prevention measures."

Saint Lucia's Ministry of Health released a statement on Friday, saying the country's success so far is "a result of the collective efforts of our health professionals working collaboratively to manage our cases and the sacrifices made by the public during the period of shut down."

"Though this 100 percent recovery rate provides us with a milestone worth recognizing, we at the Ministry of Health continue to caution the public that any gains attained should not be understood as a reason to let down our guard or to throw caution to the wind," the health officials stated. "We are still implementing our national response to the COVID-19 epidemic and as such, we should collectively remain focused and committed to reducing the spread of this virus."

According to the press release, 2,544,792 coronavirus cases have been reported globally, including 175,694 deaths. The islands in the Americas have reported 957,402 cases.

"The Ministry of Health has to remain vigilant and maintain the capacity for early detection, aggressive contact tracing, quarantine and isolation, testing and treatment capacity," the press release stated. "The health education component is critical to keep you informed in a timely manner. We have expanded the testing protocols to cover persons with respiratory symptoms."

Sharon Belmar-George

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