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• Acting CMO Dr Ronald E. Georges said momentum of new cases expected to continue for next few days

ROAD TOWN, Tortola, VI- The Virgin Islands, which currently has over 1200 active COVID-19 cases, has been declared to be in an advanced state of community spread.

This is according to Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronald E. Georges in a COVID-19 update minutes ago, July 11, 2021.

Advanced community spread

“The BVI is now in a situation of advanced community spread. As of the 10th of July 2021, a total of 5692 tests were done over the period 3rd July to 9th July and returned a total of 989 positive results. This brings the total number of positives to 1147 [active cases] as of the 10th of July 2021.

“Today we have 149 additional positive results from the 9th of July and those have so far been reported with 111 samples left to be reported on.”

More new cases expected

Dr Georges added that the trend in increasing daily reports of new cases reported appears to have stabilised; however, a large number of new cases is expected to continue to be reported for several days.

“We expect that the momentum and increase of new cases will continue for a few more days based on previous exposures.”

All at risk!

The VI being in an advanced state of community transmission, according to Dr Georges, means that all persons are presently at risk of contracting COVID-19.

He said geographical distribution and contact tracing “are irrelevant at this point” because we are in a situation of very high transmission and community spread throughout the territory.

“This means that all persons must simply take urgent and immediate to limit their exposure to stop the spread of the virus. Testing is less important at this time. It is less important to strict adherence to strict health measures and getting vaccinated,” Dr Georges stated.