Senior Medical Officer of Health Dr Anton Best is reporting a slight increase in COVID-19 cases in Barbados as he updated the country on the lingering presence of the pandemic.“Up to December 18. There is a slight increase in the COVID-19 cases in terms of the numbers of new infections, in terms of the positivity rates,” Dr Best revealed on Wednesday during a press conference with Chief Medical Officer Dr The Most Honourable Kenneth George.“In the week 12 December to 18 December we diagnosed 318 cases and that was compared to 317 cases in the previous week. So for all intents and purposes it is essentially stable with slight increases,” Dr Best added.He said fewer people are presenting themselves for testing when they are symptomatic and this has accounted for a drop in the numbers.“Of course we don’t want that. We want to maintain the best possible understanding of the COVID situation in Barbados, and for that to happen we need people to come forward and be tested. When we look at the proportion of positive PCR testing in Barbados, we see that the current positivity rate is 22 per cent in that week that I mentioned earlier, compared to 20 per cent the previous week,” he stated.
