TCI Hospital Employees Test Negative for COVID-19

#Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands – Saturday, 4 April, 2020: The Turks and Caicos Islands Hospital is pleased to advise the general public that test results were negative for hospital employees who were in contact with a temporary worker who later tested positive for COVID-19 upon his return to the USA.

The ‘confirmed overseas COVID-19 case with TCI Travel history’ was originally cited in a press release issued on 23^rd March 2020. The temporary worker, a 35-year-old American male, visited the country on March 8th – 13th 2020 to facilitate mandatory training with a group of employees at Cheshire Hall Medical Centre. The male was asymptomatic while on island but became symptomatic shortly after returning home.

There were no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the Turks and Caicos Islands or the primary U.S. state from which the affected male had travelled on the day the worker came to TCI. The process of contact-tracing, clinical screening and quarantine measures were immediately enforced in collaboration with the Public Health Team out of an abundance of caution after information about the overseas diagnosis was received. 

The Turks and Caicos Islands Hospital is pleased that all staff connected to the case have tested negative for COVID-19. The satisfactory outcome is attributed to the stringent and elevated infection, prevention and control (IPC) measures implemented across the health care facility and the keen commitment of staff to IPC precautions. 

The health, safety and wellbeing of our employees are paramount to our values. The Ministry of Health – Public Health Team and Public Health England are also applauded for the collaborative and aggressive contact tracing, guidance and efforts made to expedite the processing of samples, where possible.