There is anxiety over the possibleoutbreak of COVID-19 among people evacuating their homes for crowded government shelters and private homes on the Caribbean Island of St Vincent.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Simone Keizer Beache, on Thursday disclosed this to newsmen.

It was revealed that after the volcanic eruption of the La Soufriere on 9th April 2021, four thousand persons have been living in shelters and over six thousand in private homes.

“We have now picked up five COVID-19 positive patients among evacuees. Two are at homes of relatives, so we have exposure within a private home, and the other three, one in a shelter, exposing twelve persons to COVID-19, and two persons in another shelter exposing eight persons to COVID-19″, Beache said.

The CMO mentioned that contact tracing and extensive testing has begun.   

“One of the cases were asymptomatic, and that was what alerted us to the presence of COVID-19 in one of the shelters.”

He further stated that persons must follow the COVID-19 protocols as there are two issues, the transmission of COVID-19 and ashfall from La Soufriere.

Keizer Beache revealed that in one case, no individual in that shelter was vaccinated, raising concerns even more.

She stressed that there was strong resistance from evacuees for even testing, which health officials described as “worrying”. 

“There is no testing or vaccine order for persons to occupy the shelters,” the health officials said. 

The Islands Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves revealed that two security officers tested positive for the virus on Wednesday.