(CMC) A 20-year-old Jamaican woman is one of two people to test positive for COVID-19 in Barbados.
Health officials there said the woman tested positive on arrival at the airport aboard a Caribbean Airlines flight on Monday. The other case, a 42-year-old Guyanese woman who arrived on the island on September 9 aboard Trans Guyana, tested positive after a second test.
The authorities said that there are now 11 people in isolation and 165 have recovered. Barbados has recorded 183 cases, comprising 96 females and 87 males.
In the Bahamas, the number of positive COVID-19 cases increased by 46 over the past 24 hours, pushing the total to 2,974.
New Providence leads the way with 2,013 confirmed cases of COVID-19 followed by Grand Bahama with 597, Abaco with 100, and Bimini 54.
In Guyana, where the authorities are reporting 31 new cases among the 1,884 positive cases, Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony said that a specialised machine valued GUY$52 million will soon arrive in the country to speed up the processing of COVID-19 samples using molecular polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology.
Guyana has recorded 56 deaths from the virus and Dr Anthony said the machine is one of several interventions being made by the government to test for the disease and produce timelier results.
He said the government is also exploring other opportunities to test for the disease, following a proposal from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
A technical team from the ministry is reviewing two types of strips proposed by PAHO which will test for the COVID-19 antigen. Once approved, the strips will be procured through PAHO.
