Basseterre, St. Kitts, May 23, 2020 (SKNIS): Health authorities in St. Kitts and Nevis are warning residents that the threat of COVID-19 remains and strongly encourages persons not to lapse into a state of complacency.
“As we move into a general election it is important for us to realize that this pandemic has not gone away and it is not going away anytime soon,” Dr Cameron Wilkinson, Medical Chief of Staff at the Joseph N. France General Hospital, said on May 21, 2020. “The virus that we are fighting is one that shows no mercy. It is indiscriminate. It has no respect for children, women, men, places of worship, political parties, politicians, nor race or creed. Its only agenda is death.”
Dr Wilkinson reminded that the federation and the global community are still in the middle of the pandemic. He noted that while the first wave was successfully flattened locally, the expected second wave can be much worse.
“We cannot gamble with our lives or do anything to put us in a situation where our health system becomes overloaded. We need to, as a people, stay focused and informed. The life that may be lost, if you let your guard down, may be yours,” the medical chief of staff indicated.
The World Health Organization (WHO) continues to record increases in reported cases and deaths as a result of the coronavirus. Predictions are that a second wave is likely to have a severe impact on low and middle-income countries.
Dr Wilkinson noted that the advice from the WHO to countries was for governments to work to suppress the transmission of COVID-19, save lives and carefully restore livelihoods.