On Sunday March 28th, Health officials from the Ministry of Health in the British Virgin Islands issued a statement informing the public that persons who attended a local funeral on Saturday March 27th should isolate and get tested. The statement read, “Ministry of Health is notifying the public that a person who tested positive for COVID-19 attended a funeral held on Saturday March 27th, 2021 at the Sea Cow’s Bay Methodist Church. All persons who attended the funeral should isolate for 10 days and contact the Public Health Unit from Monday, 29th March, between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. to schedule your test. There is no payment associated with testing.”
Additionally, stating that, persons who had their vaccine 4 weeks ago, will not be required to quarantine. The correspondence further strongly recommend that unvaccinated persons get their vaccine as soon as possible as to “prevent” persons from getting Covid-19 or seriously ill from COVID-19, which caused many residents to come to the conclusion that this was in some way a scare tactic.
What officials have refused to highlight is that the individual did receive a negative test and clearance letter and have allowed the public to believe that the individual breached quarantine and deliberately put others at risk, which was not the case.
Our newsroom is in receipt of the letter of confirmation detailing the negative test and clearance for leaving quarantine. The letter which indicates that the individual was tested on March 24th and received the test results and clearance on March 25th, clearly states that by Nasopharyngeal swab (testing of the nose) has a negative ‘SARS-CoV-2RT-PCR’ result.
Since the announcement on Sunday residents have been in a frenzy, with unwarranted accusations looming that the individual breached quarantine and deliberately put others at risk, yet officials have refused to come forward and confirm that the person did receive a negative test and this was in fact a case of a false negative. A false negative is a test result that appears negative when it should not, which is not irregular when testing for a variety of illnesses.
The looming question is then, why would health officials allow the public to falsely believe that someone breached quarantine when this was not the case. When asked by our team of reporters during a recent virtual Q&A held by the Minister of Health and other Health officials, if this could have in fact been a case of a false negative, the question was ignored.
In conducting investigations and compiling data on a series of test results conducted by the Ministry of Health and the correspondence given to patients, the test result and clearance form given to this visitor is visibly different to all other test forms. It carries bits and pieces of similar information and does not clearly state on what day of testing the negative test was received. In other words, was the negative test and clearance form which the visitor received issued on Day 1 or Day 4? This is usually stated in letters in the form of “Type: Day Four”. Additionally, after being provided a negative test and clearance form, when was the positive test detected? Is it possible that special arrangements were made for this visitor?
Some visitors appear to be testing positive on Day Four (4) or exit but were negative for the pre-arrival, arrival and in some cases Day Four (4) tests.
More details as investigations continue.