Dr Joy St John, Executive Director of Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), has informed that several COVID-19 variants that are causing surges in the United States, the United Kingdom and China have “been circulating in the Caribbean since last year”.
St John made the disclosure during the latest edition of the virtual health series on “Global Health Reporting Initiative: Vaccines and Immunisation in the Caribbean,” organised by the Jamaica-based Media Institute of the Caribbean. The CARPHA official said the agency is working with member states in dealing with the situation.
The health expert cautioned against regional countries shutting down their borders or taking precautionary measures such as shutting down their borders once more in an effort to control the spread of the virus.
“We have not been seeing the surges that are (affecting) the rest of the world. We have seen surges as I said before linked to other viruses, like the RSV, influenzas H2 and three. And so we are scientifically unjustified in trying to stop any particular country from coming to the region,” she was quoted as saying by the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).