Continued monitoring for former covid19 patients

Recovering covid19 patients who have tested negative twice will continue to be monitored for seven days after being discharged, said acting county medical officer Dr Alana Quamina-Best.

This is in order to better understand and control the spread of the coronavirus.

Quamina-Best was speaking at a virtual media conference at the Ministry of Health on Tuesday. She said discharged patients will continue to be monitored by health officials to remain updated on possible relapses.

"Once we have made the diagnosis of covid19 a detailed history is taken from the patient and then we make the note of epilinks (contact with a confirmed case).

"Once they have fully recovered and have the two negative swabs, we do continue to make contact with them, through our surveillance teams, for a further seven days, by telephone, to make sure they continue to self-isolate while at home, and also just to check in on how they’re doing psychologically and physically."

Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh said the ministry's monitoring and evaluation department would work alongside UWI to collect epidemiological data on a national level for follow-up tests.