Reports coming out of St. Lucia indicate that the country has recorded their first local case of the Covid-19 virus.

A statement from the country’s Department of Health and Wellness stated that on the evening of Monday, March 30, the Laboratory Director at the Ezra Long Laboratory diagnosed an additional four (4) cases of COVID-19 bringing the total of confirmed cases in Saint Lucia to thirteen (13) to date.

The first case is a 37 year old female with no travel history but was in contact with someone within the tourism industry. She was presented to our health facility on March 23.

The second case is a 34 year old female with no travel history and no known contact with someone with significant travel history and presented to a health care facility on March 24. The third case is a 54 year old female with no travel history and came in to a health care facility on March 24.

The fourth case is a 40 year old male with no travel history but contact with persons with recent travel into Saint Lucia. He came in to a health care facility on March 25.

All the infected persons have been placed in isolation facilities and teams are currently in the field undertaking tracing of the contacts of these cases.

To date, none of these individuals have displayed any signs or symptoms of COVID-19 and given that they remain asymptomatic, the first group of persons are scheduled to be discharged from facility-based quarantine this weekend.