PM points out COVID-19 hot spots on Dutch St. Maarten
PHILIPSBURG — The Cul de Sac, Cole Bay and Little Bay areas are the districts on Dutch St. Maarten with a majority of persons who tested positive for the corona virus called COVID-19. Other areas with persons who have tested positive, reside in Simpson Bay, Upper Princess Quarter and Lower Princess Quarter. No positive cases of persons residing in Lowlands and Philipsburg have been recorded to date although they are persons who are or have been in self-quarantine and self-isolation in these areas at one point or another. This is according to information from government’s COVID-19 dashboard shared with members of parliament during a meeting of the central committee of parliament with prime minister, the Emergency Operations Center chairperson, the honorable Silveria Jacobs said on Wednesday, April 15, 2020.
Jacobs said that in the Cul de Sac area, from the cemetery to Reward there were at one point or another 45 persons in self-quarantine, 29 in self-isolation and 17 positive cases. In the Cole Bay area there are 35 persons in quarantine, 26 in isolation and the 12 positive cases. In the Upper Princess Quarter, Sucker Garden area, there were 45 persons in self-quarantine at some point or another, 37 in self-isolation and 4 positive cases. Specific figures were not provided for the other areas. The average age of positive cases is around 50 years. Jacobs said the government’s dashboard is not accessible to the public as authorities do not want persons to misuse the information by zooming in on the map and identifying areas where persons who are Covid-19 positive reside as these persons are still in tied to the doctor-patient confidentiality, even though one MP said he believes that public health should trump privacy, but noted that he respected the government’s decision.
Jacobs said authorities had decided to go more into the community for outreach and testing ,as it became clear that persons had been visiting the St. Maarten Medical Center at a late stage when the hospital could only keep them comfortable but not do much for them medically as the infection had gone too far. She alluded to a certain demographic of the population where cases were realized. She said in particular, persons from the Haitian and Dominican Republic communities were not reporting the illnesses to authorities. She expressed concern about the reluctance of persons to go out and get tested during the community outreach in Sucker Garden on Tuesday. She explained that when Collective Prevention Services, CPS, went into the area around The Keys and Sucker Garden on Tuesday at the start of the community outreach program, of the 85 persons to whom CPS managed to speak, it had been determined that 17 persons in six homes had been exhibiting symptoms. However, only one of the 17 persons visited the mobile unit parked in the area to be tested. The others did not. This is below what we expect. Jacobs said the mobile unit had been parked in that area and persons who were identified with symptoms could have gone to be tested free of cost. The medical professionals choose to do it this way because if they went into each person’s home, they would have had to change their personal protective equipment (PPE) after each visit. Jacobs expressed hope that the persons exhibiting symptoms from Sucker Garden would still go and get tested so that St. Maarten can know the real number of Covid-19 cases.
CAPTIONS: Government has launched a COVID-19 dashboard (see screenshot above) where all COVID-19 related data can be seen in one screen, including informational videos, a trending graph of the developments and the latest broadcast of the prime minister and chair of the Emergency Operations Center or EOC. The dashboard can be found online here: http://arcg.is/1mb1Xj0. This front-end version is the version for the public. The version that the EOC uses, called the EOC Dashboard (see top image), shows more indepth data used in the EOC’s decision-making process. The EOC Dashboard is not for the general public due to the privacy aspects of the data being managed in the EOC Dashboard.
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