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Minister for Health, Wellness and New Health Investment, Dr. Irving McIntyre has confirmed the presence of Delta Variant of Covid-19 in Dominica.<\/p>\n
During a press briefing on Monday night, Dr. McIntyre stressed the increased importance of vaccination in light of that development.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cThis has become even more relevant in light of the fact that we finally received confirmation from [the Caribbean Public Health Agency] (CARPHA) that we do have the Delta Variant in Dominica,\u201d he revealed.<\/p>\n
Dr. McIntyre continued, \u201cAll our samples sent to CARPHA, which were subsequently sent to the University of the West Indies for sequencing, returned positive for the Delta Variant.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to him, this particular variant rarely has any cough and fever, but rather joint pains, headache, neck and upper back pain, general weakness, loss of appetite and pneumonia.<\/p>\n
He further explained that the Delta Variant is also more virulent and takes less time to become extreme, leading to a higher death rate.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is because the Delta Variant does not remain in the nasal cavity for a long period of time, but quickly settles down to the lungs leading to pneumonia and in some cases eventually leading to death,\u201d Dr. McIntyre explained.<\/p>\n
He said it is of paramount importance that everyone participates in the vaccination roll-out of the Pfizer vaccine.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have had numerous consultations with the Ministry of Education since the Pfizer vaccine will be available to persons within the age group of 12 to 17 years,\u201d he stated. \u00a0\u201cWe are developing new strategies to get to the target population to include the corporate sector, public service, schools and the wider community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. McIntyre gave the assurance that Dominica’s stock of vaccines – 13,943 Sinopharm vaccines, 10,000 AstraZeneca and the expected 46,800 Pfizer vaccines – is enough vaccine doses to achieve herd immunity.<\/p>\n
The Health Minister reiterated the importance of following the public, health and social measures that have been put in place.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese guidelines are scientific and have proven to work,\u201d he noted. \u201cThese are the very same guidelines that kept us safe in the early stages of the Pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n
He encouraged everyone to wear a mask in public, keep 6ft away from others, avoid large gatherings, wash hands regularly, practice proper respiratory etiquette, and sanitize frequently touched surfaces.<\/p>\n
Dr. McIntyre also appealed to the businesses which were allowed to open, to ensure that the protocols specific to their businesses are implemented and adhered to.<\/p>\n
\u201cI must remind you that monitoring of your businesses is ongoing and failure to comply may result in closure,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Minister for Health, Wellness and New Health Investment, Dr. Irving McIntyre has confirmed the presence of Delta Variant of Covid-19 in Dominica. During a press briefing on Monday night, Dr. McIntyre stressed the increased importance of vaccination in light of…","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":272442,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","footnotes":""},"categories":[265,282,17,235,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-273321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-covid-19","category-covid-19-news","category-health","category-homepage-carousel","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n