Statia registers a new positive COVID case

After a period of almost 7 months of being COVID-19 free on land, the Public Entity St. Eustatius regrets to inform the general public that as of Thursday evening (August 5th) there is a registered positive COVID-19 case on the island.

It regards a journalist arriving from Curacao on Wednesday August 4th in the evening. He is fully vaccinated and had a pre-travel PCR test done on the 2nd of August which was negative. He was tested last evening by the Public Health Department (GGD) after complaining of COVID like symptoms and also due to fact that a contact on Curacao tested positive for COVID-19. The patient is now in Isolation, we wish him a good and speedy recovery. The colleague who joined him on his visit is now in quarantine.

Contact tracing

During his stay he was required to adhere to the monitoring protocol. He did adhere to the protocol by wearing a facemask, but due the nature of his profession he had several interviews on the island with a number of people. The patient has helped the Public Health Department to identify the closest (direct) contacts who were also placed in quarantine. Passengers who have traveled on the same flight fall under the GGD contract training efforts and will also be placed in quarantine as a precautionary measure. Direct contacts are at least the persons who have had close contacts for a period of time. Contact tracing is ongoing to identify further contacts.  We aim to have all contacts interviewed during the day today. Until the process of contact tracing has been completed, everyone is asked to be extra cautious.

We re-iterate the importance of wearing your mask, social distancing when in public places and washing of the hands. The Public Entity will contact all establishments during the course of today to notify them that they are required to cancel scheduled dance events until we have a better overview of the situation.

Remain vigilant

This positive case teaches us a that the threat of COVID-19 is real and that as small island we need to be prepared for it and need to remain vigilant as society on the whole.
Our system works thus far: we are capable of reacting fast, identifying the contacts and taking measures. We hope that the measures taken will lead to full containment of this case. Of course we cannot do it alone and count on the full cooperation of the entire community. This evening at 7.00 PM the Public Entity will provide another update on the COVID-19 situation on St. Eustatius.

Let us all remain vigilant!