NIA CHARLESTOWN NEVIS (May 25, 2021) – – The Nevis Island Administration (NIA) has closed all schools on Nevis for two weeks effective May 25, 2021 out of an abundance of caution in light of the recent outbreak of COVID-19 on St. Kitts.
Premier Hon. Mark Brantley, Minister of Health in the NIA, speaking at his monthly press conference on May 25, 2021, explained the decision to implement restrictions on Nevis even though the cluster of COVID-19 cases so far identified has been on St. Kitts.
“I am to say to you that the contact tracing has also started in Nevis. You know why? Because there has been the exposure of people on Nevis to those who have tested positive on St. Kitts. We are advised that one of the positive cases…visited Nevis, visited friends, had lunch, used the ferry.
“I say that not to alarm anyone; I say that to demonstrate how inextricably connected we are and that it is foolhardy for us to think that because something is happening in Basseterre that Charlestown is immune, or vice versa,” he said.
He pointed out that authorities also have evidence that some of the teachers on Nevis had journeyed to St. Kitts and engaged with their counterparts in St. Kitts in meetings and training sessions.
Testing of persons on Nevis has so far not returned any positive cases.
“Incidentally our contact tracing on Nevis, I believe yesterday we would have done ten samples, all through the grace of God have come back negative. Among those samples, I’m told were two students at two different schools who had come into primary or secondary contact with the individual, I believe it is case #48 from St. Kitts,” he said.
The contact tracing effort on Nevis will continue, the Premier assured.
Meantime the Ministry of Health in the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis announced on May 24, 2021, that six additional COVID-19 cases have been identified as a result of contact tracing from Case #46.
The number of active cases in the Federation now stands at 15, all on St. Kitts.
To date the Federation has confirmed 60 COVID-19 cases with 46 on St. Kitts, 14 on Nevis; 45 of those cases have recovered with no deaths.