NIA CHARLESTOWN NEVIS (November 11, 2020) — The Ministry of Health on Nevis continues to put measures in place at the island’s main health facility in preparation for the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hon. Hazel Brandy-Williams, Junior Minister of Health in the Nevis Island Administration (NIA) stated at a sitting of the Nevis Island Assembly on November 05, 2020, that remedial work is being undertaken to ensure that the Alexandra Hospital is prepared in the event that there are cases of the virus on the island.

“We can say at this point that we have 19 designated beds for COVID patients. We have eight at Alexandra. We have eight at an offsite isolation unit and we have three at the Flamboyant [Nursing] Home. Those at the Flamboyant Home would only be for Flamboyant residents. So we have actually 16 available for the general public. We continue to ramp up the purchase of our PPE’s [Personal Protective Equipment], our protective clothing, our infrastructure.

“In terms of machinery and equipment, we are awaiting a specialist technician to come to Nevis to set up a piece of equipment we have, a chemical analyser. We are waiting on that person to come and that will improve our testing capabilities here on Nevis,” she said.

The Junior Health Minister explained that the NIA is not responsible for the delay in commissioning the equipment, and expressed hope that the matter would be resolved shortly.

“We are hoping that that person would come in short order. The challenge we met with that is that the technician who we were liaising with has since left that company who usually services this special equipment, and so the company is liaising with us in the process of getting another technician to come and commission that piece of equipment. So we are awaiting,” she said.

Mrs. Brandy-Williams noted that persons should take personal responsibility to safeguard themselves.

“We have witnessed the reopening of our borders and in so doing we at the Ministry of Health and Gender Affairs and by extension the COVID Task Force, we want to advise persons to the importance of remaining resilient and ramping up our own individual security as it pertains to the protocols that have been put in place…

“The clarion call is out for persons to adhere to the protocols and to take personal responsibility for upkeeping of these protocols,” she said.