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Basseterre, St. Kitts, April 05, 2020 (SKNIS): Chief Medical Officer Dr. Hazel Laws reported on Sunday, April 05, that there has been no local transmission of COVID-19 confirmed in St. Kitts and Nevis.

Dr. laws stated that local transmission “is the term that is used to describe when the virus is transmitted between two or more persons who have not left the local community or the federation in the case of St. Kitts and Nevis.”

“It means that the virus is being passed between persons locally who have not travelled themselves and who have not had direct contact with a person who travelled back from a destination with an outbreak,” she said.

“In other words, the source of the infection is within the federation. So, this term cannot be used to describe our situation at present,” said Dr. Laws. “This is based on the information we have to date.”

Dr. Laws further stated that community transmission, based on the World Health Organization (WHO), is the term used to describe the period in an outbreak with increasing large numbers.

“It is evidenced by the inability to relate confirmed cases through chains of transmission for a large number of cases or by increasing number of positive tests through routine testing from our laboratories. Again, this term cannot be used to describe the outbreak as we see it on the ground at present,” she said.

In St. Kitts and Nevis, there are 10 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with zero deaths. To date 183 persons have been tested with 10 confirmed positive 114 confirmed negative and 59 results pending.

There are currently 34 persons quarantined in a government facility, while 215 persons are quarantined at home.

Ten persons are in isolation. To date 249 persons have been released from quarantine.

“In essence we have 10 confirmed cases. Eight of these cases are imported cases and two of these cases appear to be import related and they are under investigation. One had indirect contact with someone in quarantine who returned from an area with COVID-19 outbreak and the other had direct and close contact with tourists from the United States of America,” said Dr. Laws.

Of the ten confirmed cases seven are symptom free and recovering. One has mild symptoms and continue to improve. The other two are hospitalized in Nevis, but stable.

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