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TORTOLA, BVI — British Virgin Islands Health and Social Development Minister Carvin Malone announced on radio Tuesday evening that six more people have died from Covid-19, bringing the British territory's total deaths from the onset of the pandemic to thirty-one, up from twenty-five four days ago.
Speaking on the British Virgin Islands Party's "Let's Talk" radio show, the health minister cautioned residents not to wait before seeking care if they feel ill with Covid.
On the deaths, he stated, “We don’t want a nation who becomes oblivious or [where] death is so commonplace that we feel as if it doesn’t matter anymore."
Meanwhile, employees of the Dr D. Orlando Smith Hospital in Tortola have been seeking counseling after experiencing an overwhelming amount of deaths — up to four per day during the height of the BVI Covid surge this month, according to BVI Health Services Authority CEO Pat Malone-Smith.
“We’re not accustomed to having that many deaths in a day. When you have four deaths in a day, when you’re accustomed to possibly having four deaths in a week or a month, it hits hard," she said.
Mr. Malone, the BVI Health and Social Development minister, stated Tuesday that cases had dramatically decreased from 1,109 just four days ago to 584 active cases as of Tuesday, in part because many of the persons once listed as ill with the disease have recovered. Additionally, some thirty-two individuals have been discharged, though there were twenty-four persons hospitalized as of Tuesday, he said.
None of the hospitalized individuals were vaccinated, according to Mr. Malone. He also revealed that 16,330 people were vaccinated against the virus as of Tuesday, of which 11,266 were fully vaccinated, meaning they have received two dozes of the AstraZeneca vaccine. He said 5,064 residents had received only one shot so far and therefore were considered partially inoculated.
The British territory has heightened its pandemic response by reimposing Covid restrictions aimed at quelling the surge of the virus. It has also conducted multiple vaccination drives since the July surge and at one point administered over 800 shots in two days. The territory is currently in the waning days of its 21 days of prayer and fasting effort, whose goal is to petition God to intervene on the behalf of the BVI against the virus.
Sources: BVI News, BVI Government, and the British Virgin Islands Party "Let's Talk" radio show.
