#KINGSTON, Jan. 31 (JIS): Health and Wellness Minister, Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton, says the country is in a state of readiness for the coronavirus.
Following a tour of isolation
facilities and equipment at the National Chest Hospital and the Norman Manley
International Airport (NMIA) on Thursday (January 30), Dr. Tufton said that the
country has what is necessary to guard against the infectious disease, both at
the hospital level and at the ports of entry.
“I’m very comfortable that we have
the personnel and we have the infrastructure… to scan, to monitor and to deal
with the threat that the coronavirus is presenting now for the world. There are
always margins of error; of course these things will always include some risk,
but… I saw [the facilities] for myself today and I’m satisfied,” Dr. Tufton
said.
The two-room isolation unit at the
National Chest Hospital was originally designed to manage two cases of
multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.
Dr. Tufton said that while every
hospital has an isolation area, the Chest Hospital remains the specialist
institution to deal with respiratory ailments.
Meanwhile at NMIA, the Minister got
first-hand experience with the thermal and handheld fever scanners being used
at the airports.
He also toured the NMIA’s isolation unit consisting of a total of six beds in three rooms.