The 17 positive cases of COVID-19 are between the ages of 21 and 67 – CMO

Of the 17 positive cases of Covid-19 recorded thus far, both persons with pre-existing conditions and persons without pre-existing conditions have fallen victim.

The Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Simone Keizer-Beache, in responding to questions at a Ministry of Health conference yesterday, May 7, spoke generally as it relates to age and gender of those who tested positive.

While the question posed sought to have an entire breakdown of the cases, Keizer-Beache indicated that she would not do so.

“Rather I can give you a range,” she indicated.

“…Knowing the individual age and sex, what’s the need for that specific? Rather we should be looking at a trend,” the CMO stated, and questioning “Is it that our population that’s becoming sick is any different to the other populations.”

She indicated that persons between 21 and 67 years old had tested positive for the virus. Males are dominating the statistics, with 70% of the 17 infected being men, while 30% are women, which is something “that is consistent with what we are seeing elsewhere.”

“We have had persons who have had pre-existing conditions and persons without pre-existing conditions,” Keizer-Beache also informed.

When asked why the MOH would not reveal specific information, the CMO referenced what happened with the first two recorded cases, in that persons were able to find out who they were.

“St Vincent is a very small population and if you start listing out person A who is this age and this sex, and was in this situation, it becomes very easy to identify,” she stated.

Further, Keizer-Beache questioned “what is the reason, why do you need to know the age and sex? Is that you want to be able to identify or the public health interest in age and sex is for us to determine if our at risk population is different from somebody else?”

For the public’s interest, she also noted that she believed they would want to know who is at risk, whether this is persons with pre-existing conditions such as hypertension and diabetes “or are we having young persons who have no pre-existing conditions?”