Update into COVID-19 Patients

So, as you heard just now, there are no new confirmed cases of COVID-19.  The index patient and her mom remain in isolation on San Pedro.  As you know, those two cases resulted in the state of emergency on the island.  At this time, the ministry says the two patients are not exhibiting serious symptoms and are being monitored.  Health officials also continue with their tracing on the island. Doctors Marvin and Russell Manzanero tell us more.

Marvin Manzanero

Dr. Marvin Manzanero, Director of Health Services

“I know that people had asked what happens in terms of the clinical situation with the patients. I am told that the index case, the first female, actually had a fever this morning and doesn’t have any other symptoms. And the mom, I can read textually what I got from the person who does face-time with her because are monitoring her other chronic conditions , it says no signs of symptoms; no fever; slight stuffiness in right nostril and she indicated to the person doing face-time with her that she had slept like a baby. So, that is good news in that regard. At the end of the day what we want to minimize is mortality. People had also asked how long before they are declared COVID negative because you see how the mapping is done when people are positive or negative, that is fourteen days after we do the initial swab and you will need to have two negative consecutive samples before you are declared a negative case in that regard.”

Russell Manzanero

Dr. Russell Manzanero, Director of Epidemiology Unit

“From the initial mapping that was carried out, when we did the first, the index case, we did get back about eight to twelve individuals who had direct contact with them; that is inclusive of the family members as well. With that first mapping we were able to detect the immediate contact in this case. For that person we have an individual who is over sixty-five but we do know that for right now she is stable even though she may have some underlying co morbidity or illness, she is very stable. In regards of contacts from this individual, we are really still looking at that and the personnel on the island are still doing their contact tracing as well.”