Active Covid-19 cases are now the lowest they have been since late January, marked by the return of the Ministry of Health’s dashboard, which had been noticeably absent for nearly two weeks.
On the weekend, the health ministry apologised for the delay, explaining that it was due “to an ongoing audit of the Covid-19 data being carried out by the Ministry’s Epidemiology Unit.”
Before the weekend release of the dashboard, health officials last posted the infographic on April 28, when active cases had been reported as 186 people.
The latest dashboard had welcomed news, with the number of persons with the active virus in their bodies now standing at 31.
The drastic decline followed weeks of government officials, including Prime Minister Gaston Browne, claiming that the active count was much lower than was reflected on the document, but this was being hampered by limitations including testing.
The ministry now says that they are going to do a daily release of the dashboard, which features the number of new infections recorded, hospitalisations, individuals in isolation, deaths associated with Covid-19 and vaccination statistics.
The Ministry thanked the public for their patience.
According to the latest report, the most recent reports received by the Ministry of Health from the Mount St. John’s Medical Centre (MSJMC) and the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), covering the period April 28th through to May 4th 2021 at 6pm have revealed eight new laboratory confirmed Covid-19 cases.
A release from the ministry said the new cases were identified between the publication of the last dashboard and May 3.
During the same time span, there were 154 recovered cases recorded, thus bringing the total number of recoveries to 1,168.
“During the audit, the Epidemiology Unit also discovered that seven of the Covid-19 cases were duplicated. As a result, the confirmed cases column is being reduced by seven. The other relevant columns have also been adjusted,” the release added.
With the updated information, the total number of persons with laboratory confirmed Covid-19 cases in Antigua and Barbuda is now 1,231 and of the active cases, only five people are presently in the hospital.
“The audit investigation of the Covid-19 related deaths is still ongoing and is being carried out in order to ensure that the deaths are recorded and classified according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) standards of Covid-19-related deaths. This could result in an adjustment to this category which will be promptly published upon completion of the investigation which is expected to be no later than Friday 14th May 2021,” the Ministry indicated.