The Roman Catholic Church in Grenada has confirmed that at least 6 or 7 persons have died in recent days from Covid-19 at the Hilarion Home in Mt. Rodney, St. Patrick.
A church official told THE NEW TODAY that there were nine deaths over this period but not all can be ascertained at this point in time to have died from the deadly virus.
He said that the head of the Catholic Church on the island, Bishop Clyde Harvey has been appraised of the situation and is currently looking into it.
According to the clergyman, the Bishop is not sure of the cause of death of the others but “he’s trying to find out what is the situation and as soon as he can he will prepare a statement and hopefully later on that will come out.”
An elderly woman reportedly died at the home this morning – the latest victim in the Covid-19 sweep across the island.
The clergyman said that he is also hearing reports that the workers who go in and out of the Elderly home on a daily basis are primarily responsible for bringing the Covid-19 into the institution.
“Apparently that’s what it seems,” he told THE NEW TODAY.
He was quizzed on why the authorities at the Home did not implement a strategy to stop the staffers at the Hilarion Home from going back and forth into the community on a daily basis.
He admitted that this is a problem existing at the Home itself and elsewhere where people care for senior citizens living in their own private homes.
“… For us to deal with that is difficult – yes, the church is responsible for the Home but the Home has its own Management structure.
The clergyman acknowledged that this strategy was implemented in the initial outbreak of Covid-19 in Grenada in March 2020 when some employees were asked to stay at the Home during that period.
He said the staffers were kept in for a 2-week period and then they were rotated with other colleagues.
“Even right now at the Home some of the workers are down because of the virus – some of them am told are fearful and they are not coming (to work),” he added.
THE NEW TODAY understands that the lady in charge of the Hilarion Home is said to be very hysterical for the past 3 to 4 days following the death of the first elderly person and the others from Covid-19 at the institution over the weekend.
Grenada has been seeing increasing number of deaths from the virus which is believed to be affecting almost each village on the island.
Health teams that were out in local communities over the weekend discovered a number of persons were affected by the virus without some of them knowing that they had been infected.
There are reports that an entire household of six persons in Harford Village in St. Andrew had been hit by Covid-19.
Speculation is rife that Grenada might be suffering from a shortage of Covid-19 Rapid test kits and approaches by a private citizen have been made to Prime Minister Roosvelt Skerrit of Dominica to send as a matter of urgency a package with about 5, 000 kits to St. George.
Dominica is believed to have sent an unknown quantity of test kits last week to the island and Prime Minister Skerrit is believed to be inclined to do so again and come to the rescue of Grenadians.