Saint Lucia has been sustaining efforts in managing the national COVID-19 response over the course of this year. A core component of this response is screening and testing for the virus. A total of 1,955 tests have been carried out to date. As of July 10, 2020, Saint Lucia has recorded a total of 22 confirmed cases of COVID-19, and 19 of these cases have fully recovered with three currently in care and progressing well.

On Thursday, July 9, Saint Lucia received the first international flight since the border opening on June 4, 2020. A total of 131 passengers travelled into Saint Lucia which were a combination of both nationals and visitors.

As guided by the established protocol all arriving passengers were screened by the health team at the Hewannora International Airport Public Health Facility before entering the airport terminal. None of the passengers displayed respiratory symptoms nor had a fever.

A total of 6 PCR tests were done at the airport arrival as these travellers were unable to travel into the island with their documented results. Passengers were later filtered to one of the locations established for the quarantine period.

Many processes were put in place to ensure the efficient processing of the arriving travellers at the airport health facility. The processing of the 131 passengers on Thursday, July 9 lasted for one hour and thirty minutes in total.

A de-briefing meeting was held immediately after the process was complete and this involved representatives from the Ministry of Health with the Saint Lucia Air and Sea Ports Authority and representatives of all of the relevant agencies. This allowed to identify the strengths within the current process flow as well as to identify areas requiring improvements. These improvements were focused at supporting the smooth flow of passengers which includes increased signage, dedicated lines for passengers with different conditions, use of a numbering system to provide some order in attending to the travellers and increased number of booths for the processing of health screening.

As we continue into the phased re-opening of the country, we continue to advise the public to maintain the recommended public health measures to reduce the risk of transmission of COVID-19 in the event of the importation of cases. We will continue providing regular updates on the national COVID-19 response to the public.