Ministry takes action over clinic visited by woman with coronavirus

As of Monday, March 16, 2020

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE 61-year-old woman with the novel coronavirus visited the Fleming Street Clinic last week and her visit has now prompted Ministry of Health officials to encourage some staff of the clinic to self-quarantine, The Tribune understands.

The woman's visit to the clinic is not what prompted the commotion that was captured in a viral video on Wednesday – that was a separate incident, with the patient in that case testing negative for the virus.

"Individual staff members who may have been in contact with the patient but not appropriately wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) are being encouraged to self-quarantine," a Ministry of Health official told this newspaper Monday morning. "However, those who were not in contact with the patient or wore appropriate PPE do not need to quarantine at this time."

In a statement yesterday, the Ministry of Health said only that the Fleming Street Clinic will be closed today and will re-open tomorrow "due to circumstances beyond our control."

A meeting will be held today at the clinic to clarify issues and answer questions for staff.

The New Providence resident who became the country's first confirmed case of the COVID-19 showed up to Princess Margaret Hospital on Friday with cough and fever symptoms. Health officials say she was immediately isolated and was unable to expose other people to the coronavirus.

John 4 years, 1 month ago

Some states are now implementing a ‘drive up ‘ system to deal with suspected Corona cases. After the patient calls the hot line and all the symptoms and prescribing are done if the patient is still suspected, they are asked to drive to a certain location where they are met by the medical team who performs the Corona tests. Since the results takes 6 hours, the patient can either self isolate or go to a designated sterile area to be quarantined to await the results. This avoids contamination of public facilities, reduces fear of the public visiting those facilities and keeps the identities of patients confidential.

birdiestrachan 4 years, 1 month ago

The news article reads. that the woman who visited the Clinic was not infected.

The woman who tested positive went to PMH.

joeblow 4 years, 1 month ago

It was reported that the infected woman has not traveled recently, which can only mean that she had contact with someone who is moving around the country, quite possibly without any symptoms. This also means that within the next week we can expect the numbers to increase exponentially as that person continues to infect others and so on. I don't have a lot of faith in our government acting in the best interest of the people!

Things are about to get interesting!!

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