Health authorities warned about the presence in Jamaica, Saint Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago of the new strain of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus discovered in the United Kingdom, which is up to 70 percent more transmissible than the previous ones.
The director of the Caribbean Public Health Agency, Joy St John, confirmed the finding in samples analyzed at the laboratory of Port-of-Spain from several member countries of the Caribbean Community (Caricom).
St John said that the Barbadian Government sent tests to that center to determine whether the strain, first detected last September in Kent County, is in the Caribbean territory.
Following the announcement by the United Kingdom to confine several areas due to the mutation, Grenada suspended air traffic with that country in December, a decision joined by Germany, Italy, Belgium, Ireland, Argentina, El Salvador, Chile, Peru, among other nations.