The isolation room at Queen Beatrix Medical Centre.
ST. EUSTATIUS--The number of active cases of COVID-19 in St. Eustatius climbed from zero to four within 24 hours.
The public entity St. Eustatius announced on Friday, December 4, that there were two new registered cases of COVID-19. One of the persons involved was in central quarantine and the other in home-based quarantine. Both were placed in isolation after they tested positive.
The Public Health Department GGD stated that it believes that these two new COVID-19 cases are contained, as neither person has been in contact with persons in the Statia community. Both persons tested positive during their quarantine period and are defined as imported cases of COVID-19.
Two additional persons tested positive for COVID-19 on Saturday, December 5. They are two Statia residents who had travelled to Bonaire for medical purposes. They were placed in quarantine on their return to Statia and are now in isolation.
Government Commissioner Marnix van Rij requested that family, friends and the community of Statia give the persons in isolation their support. These persons will have to stay indoors in isolation until they are fully recovered.
“Please, call them or send them a WhatsApp with encouraging and positive messages,” Van Rij said. “Today has proven again how important our quarantine policy is for Statia. For the past nine months we have used the quarantine system as a safety net to keep our community safe.”
Because of the stress and trauma of quarantining, persons in home-based quarantine can venture outside in their yard if no others are in the same vicinity.
Statia’s most recent quarantine policy decreased the quarantine period from 14 to 12 days if the test results have come back negative. The test is taken on the 10th day of quarantine. Persons in quarantine are asked not to leave quarantine before they know their test results or get the go-ahead from the GGD.
For the past months, Statia has worked at containing the virus while allowing persons to travel for medical purposes, as well as allowing stranded Statians to return home and Statians who live elsewhere to have the opportunity to return to the island.
“The situation is very unique because the island depends a lot on the outside world, but the reality is that we do not know how long the pandemic will last,” Van Rij said, asking the public to take the situation seriously, to act responsibly and not to let their guard down, “so that everyone can work together to keep the Statia community safe.”
The COVID-19 crisis team will meet and the public entity will make further announcements later this week.
GGD director Carol Jack-Roosberg explained why Statia has not lowered the number of quarantine days from 14 to 10 days, like in the Netherlands, Saba and Bonaire. She said this has to do with the fact that many tests must be carried out in Statia and these tests must be sent to St. Maarten and Curaçao as the three lab technicians at Queen Beatrix Medical Centre cannot handle such a large quantity of tests.
Currently there are 116 persons in quarantine and four persons in isolation, which is more than Statia’s maximum capacity of 60 persons in quarantine.
Roosberg said Saturday’s test results were an example of why the GGD is encouraging people to stay in quarantine until they receive the test results. Because of the positive test results, the GGD has decided to carry out contact tracing, which started on Saturday and will continue until today, Monday.
The GGD is advising persons who may have COVID-19-like symptoms to call tel. 318-2891 during office hours.
