Epidemiologist: No clear answer on where new cases came from

Epidemiologist Dr Avery Hinds says it would be premature to say where the new covid19 cases have come from. For now, he says, there is no clear answer.

He was responding to questions at the Health Ministry’s covid19 media briefing on Monday morning.

While he said it was a valid question, he said, “We are still investigating. We don’t have a clear or concrete answer to where the cases would have come from.

"We start where the cases are and trace backward, while we also trace outwards to reduce spread. We collect info on exposure, in different settings, with different persons and that info helps us understand where people may have been exposed.”

He said the ministry was “working assiduously” to identify the source.

Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh reminded the public even when there were no active cases, he always warned the virus was “still among us.

“But what is different this time is that we are more prepared to turn around test results…We have ramped up our testing capacity, using the gene expert machine…Right now, we are more ready than we were two months ago, three months ago, for those cases we always anticipated would pop up.”