Saint Lucia records 100% COVID-19 recovery rate as all patients are discharged

The Eastern Caribbean island nation of Saint Lucia has recorded a 100% COVID-19 recovery rate as authorities announced all 15 patients, who contracted the virus have recovered after treatment.

The announcement was made by the country’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Sharon Belmar-George, during a briefing 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 percent recovery of all COVID-19 cases.”

Some of the patients who recovered include those who fell within the high risk category as a result of their age or underlying health condition. They also recovered without any setbacks or complications and did not require any critical care whatsoever.

Belmar-George, however, stressed that they are still conducting COVID-19 laboratory testing locally as well as 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,” she said.

The island nation’s partial lockdown and 10-hour curfew, which is from 7 pm to 5 am, still holds.

The country, which recorded its fist coronavirus case on March 13, has not confirmed a new case in 11 consecutive days. Belmar-George, however, reiterated they are not going to let their guard down and stressed on the measures they are taking to break the spread of the virus.

“We remain at a very critical position in the implementation of the national response to the COVID-19 threat,” she 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.”

She continued: “Some of the measures that have been instituted 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.”

She also called on Saint Lucians to adhere to the recommended safety and virus prevention measures.