THE UNVACCINATED AND ELDERLY STILL MOST AT RISK OF CONTRACTING MODERATE TO SEVERE COVID-19 ACCORDING TO DATA – CMO DR HAZEL LAWS
| Basseterre, St. Kitts, November 18, 2021 (SKNIS): The Government of St. Kitts and Nevis via the Ministry of Health has successfully curb the 3rd wave of infections attributed to the deadly COVID-19 virus. During the November 17, 2021 NEOC press briefing, Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr. Hazel Laws indicated that both the hospitalization and infection rates across the Federation continue to decline thanks to the success of the vaccination roll-out programme. “We have done a good job so far in terms of containing the third wave of infections and so over this past week we have only added twenty-six (26) new cases, so the case count for this past week is twenty-six (26), eighteen (18) cases less than the previous week. We have only admitted one (1) individual to the hospital over this period and we have discharged two (2) COVID-19 positive patients and we’ve had sixty-two (62) recoveries also during this period,” said CMO Dr. Laws. Also announced during the NEOC press briefing, was another COVID-19 related death for the Federation bringing the total number of deaths to twenty-eight (28), with Dr. Laws indicating that the individual was not vaccinated against COVID-19. The CMO further stated that a majority of the COVID-19 related deaths are persons who are unvaccinated against the deadly virus, showing the importance of vaccination in the fight to beat the virus. “When you analyze the demographic data of the individuals who would have died, we realize that eighty-six (86) percent of the twenty-eight (28) cases the individuals were unvaccinated, while sixty-eight (68) percent were over the age of sixty years old. This data is really telling us that if you are an older adult meaning sixty years and over and unvaccinated coupled with one of the chronic non-communicable diseases or if you have a number of Como-abilities your risk of becoming COVID-19 positive is increased and so is your risk of progressing to moderate or severe COVID-19. When we look at the data regarding the positive cases, we realize that seventy (70) percent of the cases were not vaccinated and so again if you are in the Federation and unvaccinated your risk of being diagnosed with COVID-19 is significant,” said CMO Dr. Laws An extensive audit of the St. Kitts and Nevis vaccine data was conducted in collaboration with the Epidemiologist, Dr. Rosales and Ms. Akila Moore, Medical Statistician at the Health Information Unit of the Ministry of Health. As of November 17, 2021, 79.3 percent of the adult target population would have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, with another 72.6 percent of adults fully vaccinated against COVID-19. |
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