Acting Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Dr Francis Martin has said that the Grenada government has formally written to the International Health Regulations of the World Health Organisation (WHO) to inform them about a man who was confirmed positive for COVID-19, who then fled the island.
“With regards to the person that fled, there is a process that countries go through and a formal report is sent to the International Health regulations to handle through their channels,” Dr. Martin said in response to inquiries concerning the man who arrived in Grenada from the United Kingdom on March 16th and started to show signs of the virus.
The individual was reportedly tested on March 26 but left the island and returned to the UK via Canada before receiving his result.
Health Minister Nicholas Steele has described the action of the 58-year-old as “troubling and reckless”.
According to Minister Steele, when the Ministry of Health tried contacting the individual who was told to quarantine himself, he was not located, but will continue to be listed among Grenada’s COVID confirmations which currently count as 12.
“The results came back on Saturday, March 28th. As per procedure, health officials tried to reach him minutes later to inform that he had tested positive for COVID-19. As Minister, I went ahead and announced the cases to the nation, as we have been doing. The individual was neither found on Saturday nor Sunday.
On Sunday, health officials reported the matter to the Police. It was later confirmed that the individual and his family left the island aboard Air Canada before he got his results on Saturday,” Steele said in a recent update.
“This is troubling in many ways, especially the level of exposure between his place of residence in Grenada and his abode in the United Kingdom, where he says he is now. This is a level of dishonesty and recklessness, such that we do not need at this time. We cannot stress enough, lives are already at stake, without the added risks,” he added.
Minister Steele went on: “We have followed up with that individual to ascertain his movements and mode of movement on the day he left the country undetected. We are also following up with relevant law enforcement authorities because, in our view, this is cause for liability.”
According to Grenada’s Quarantine legislation any person who violates a quarantine request can be fined EC$10, 000 while the Public Health Act provides for the Police to provide assistance to ensure that any person with an infectious disease complies with legal regulations.
The patent who slipped out of the island undetected has forced the Grenada Airports Authority (GAA) to ask all staffers who worked on the shift at MBIA to go into isolation in case they might have been exposed to the deadly virus.