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Basseterre, St. Kitts, July 18, 2021 (SKNIS):  St. Kitts & Nevis has managed remarkably well the second wave of COVID-19 cases since May 19 when it was announced that the country had entered the stage of local transmission with a worker in the tourism industry becoming infected. Since then the country has recorded 505 cases in 60 days with 438 recovered cases and three deaths. Eighty-eight (88) percent of all confirmed cases have recovered. 

The country’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Hazel Laws announced on June 26, 2021, that a new strain of the virus, Lambda, had been identified in the second wave after the Ministry of Health sent samples to the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) for genomic sequencing to determine the variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that is presently in circulation. The SARS-CoV-2 variant belongs to the lineage B.1.1.1 or C.37 and is classified as a variant of interest by the World Health Organization. It has been identified in 29 countries and was first identified in Peru in August 2020. It is prevalent in South American countries including Argentina.

The Ministry of Health’s Situation Reports for the past two days have recorded a total of six (6) new COVID-19 positive cases. On Friday 16^th July, four (4) were recorded and Saturday 17^th July, two (2).

Since the country entered into community spread with its 46^th positive case on May 19, the Ministry of Health’s robust contact tracing process continues to identify new cases of COVID-19, and testing has been continuous.

St. Kitts & Nevis COVID-19 Situation Report No. 478 as of Saturday, July 17, 2021, states that the total number of confirmed cases now stands at 550 with 64 active cases, and 483 recovered cases. 532 of those cases were recorded in St. Kitts while 18 were registered in Nevis. To date, there have been 23, 221 negative results.

A nightly curfew remains in place from 9:00 pm of each day until 5 am of the following day, which started on Monday 12th July, 2021 at 9:01 pm and will end at 5:00 am on Monday 26th July, 2021 until new regulations are instituted.