AS many countries in the worls are grappling with the purported new XBB.1.5 subvariant of COVID, it has been revealed that the strain has been in circulation in the Caribbean since last year.
This was confirmed by the Executive Director of the Caribbean Public Health Agency, Dr. Joy St. John, who said that and other variants, including the Delta Variant, have already been in the region.
She made the disclosure as matching was made based on tracking and reports from member states where severe illnesses and deaths have been reported.
Dr. St. John noted that they have seen other issues such as RSV, the Flu, and Bird Flu causing severe illness, hospitalization and death across the Caribbean.
Health officials are concerned that many territories have reopened and are not testing incoming passengers, while at the same time removing the mask mandate, thus opened up territories for continued spread of many illnesses, such as the RSV, COVID and the Flu.
