Published 28th October 2020
Buckie Got It, Basseterre, St. Kitts and Nevis News Source
Chief Medical Officer in the Ministry of Health, Dr. Hazel Laws, outlined in detail the travel entry COVID-19 protocols for the reopening of the Federation’s borders on October 31.
During her presentation on October 28 at the Robert L. Bradshaw International Airport during the Cabinet walk through to observe the retrofitting work, Dr. Laws said that “incoming passengers will be queued ahead of approaching the medical screening unit.”
“In the medical screening unit there are four port health counters and so the port health surveillance officers will be rechecking the health data which would have been submitted prior to arrival and they would then conduct a focused health assessment of the passenger along with a temperature check,” said Dr. Laws.
“Once the passenger is A-symptomatic that is without COVID like symptoms, the passenger will then be allowed to exit the medical screening area and move towards the immigration and then downstairs to customs where they will be free to leave the airport via COVID-19 approved ground transportation,” she said.
“If however the passenger is found to have symptoms, for example, coughing, sneezing or even exhibiting a temperature or fever, the passenger will then be directed to one of the three testing boots where the appropriate nasopharyngeal sample will be taken and sent to our local laboratory for testing,” said the Chief Medical Officer.
“The individual after having their sample taken, they will be directed to one of the two isolation rooms in the isolation section on the ramp,” she said.
“There the passenger will be isolated, evaluated and triaged by the medical team and the passenger will then be transferred directly from the isolation room and unit via appropriate transportation either to the COVID ward at out General JNF Hospital or the accommodation sites where they would have appropriate quarantine areas,” said Dr. Laws.
