A Boxing Day bus crawl which blatantly defied Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley’s ban on social events, has led to 45 confirmed Covid-19 cases- and the number is likely to go up.

The government of Barbados made the revelation on New Year’s Day, dubbing the event a super-spreader.

Among the positive cases confirmed in a 24 hour period are 32 persons from the Prison Service and four from the Barbados Defence Force.

Barbados Health Minister Lt Col Jeffrey Bostic revealed that contact tracing and testing efforts so far have returned 100 cases under active investigation.

The island is currently on a nightly curfew from midnight until 5am- which will remain in place until January 14th. 

Meanwhile, Political leader of the Democratic Labour Party in Barbados,Verla DePeiza, has called on PM Mia Mottley to halt incoming travel to the island as a means to curb the country’s case load.

“We recommend now the island be closed to all persons entering the island from international countries for two weeks at least, to enable us to get ahead of this outbreak. We cannot continue taking the residents of Barbados hostage when a situation arises. The time has come to accept the responsibility and seek to change it,” she said.