Two more tests positive of novel coronavirus in Dominica

Two more have reportedly tested positive of coronavirus in Dominica, Dr Shalauddin Ahmed- National Epidemiologist stated during a press briefing on Wednesday.

These two patients are Dominicans who returned from the United States of America. One of these patients is also a fourteen-year-old, and the other one is a female aged 45.

“Over the prior week we have had two new cases,” he added.
According to Dr Ahmed, the latest cases are Dominicans who came from the USA.

“One is a 14-year-old man, and the other one is a 45-year-old female,” he revealed. “They are asymptomatic. One of them was identified at the airport following rapid testing, and the second one was identified at the quarantining ability following the day-5 testing.”

Dr Ahmed indicated that in total, 85 cases have strongly recovered and have been discharged from the COVID Centre.
“There are no deaths to-date,” he showed.

Since the reopening of Dominica’s border on July 15th, 2020, a total of 69 cases have been detected using the PCR testing system.

“It should be noted that of these cases, 85 per cent people were detected through active surveillance, that is to say, they were detected through on-arrival screening, contact tracing and routine screening of doubted cases,” he explained.

Dr Ahmed stated that the health department is planning to start a community screening that targets to test over 400 people with serology method. He mentioned that the reason behind the conducting tests using serology method is to understand the virus load on the general public, which would assist in deriving the clearer image of the pandemic in Dominica.

Furthermore, he mentioned that 85% of the total cases traced so were identified during on arrival checking at airports, five days checking at quarantine facility, contact tracing and community testing.

He noted that recovery rate is going good and many people have cured and discharged.