Bellevue alarm as 35 isolated with virus

A patient transfer from Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) to Bellevue Hospital is believed to have triggered a second outbreak of COVID-19 at the state-run mental-health facility, where one person has so far died and 35, including registered nurses, are in isolation.

The first case was discovered on August 31, only eight months after a cluster of cases was discovered, raising concerns about whether health protocols were rigidly observed.

"We are managing quite well,” Senior Medical Officer (SMO) Dr Myo Kyaw Oo told The Gleaner on Monday despite 21 chronic patients and 15 staff members testing positive.

The majority of staff infected, he said, work within the dietary department, while the others are maintenance and clinical staff, including patient-care assistants and psychiatric aides.

None of the 540 patients are vaccinated against COVID-19 and only 40 per cent of the 600 staff members have been inoculated.

“We’re following the Ministry of Health protocols, and Bellevue Hospital has an isolation ward. So, all the patients are in the isolation ward and people who are showing symptoms and some of the patients and staff who were identified [to be in contact] with positives, even though they are not showing signs, have been tested,” Oo said.

He said the first patient who tested positive was transferred from KPH to the institution’s psychiatric ward. The woman was found to be infected two days after arriving there.

“After that, the majority of the cases we found were from the chronic section of the hospital. The chronic section is where patients are basically locked down for months now and we have no communication. They are not going out at all,” he added.

The SMO said that it was not clear how infections began in that section of the facility.

A risk assessment, Oo said, was done following the health ministry’s policy on treating outbreaks.

“Based on that, we categorise people like those who are in high exposure and those who are in the low exposure, and we follow strict guidelines of what to do with the high-exposure people and the low-exposure people,” he said.

“Remember now, this is the Delta variant we are dealing with. So, therefore, it is highly contagious and that’s why I think that we have the cases we have but so far, we are managing [the situation] with the Kingston and St Andrew COVID management team and our clinical team together,” he added.

Meanwhile, Oo said that preparations were being made to have patients vaccinated with the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

The Government last month received 115,200 doses through the African Medical Supplies Platform.

Nurses Association of Jamaica President Patsy Edwards-Henry revealed that five registered nurses at Bellevue tested positive for COVID-19. Four are mildly ill and one precautionarily admitted to the Mandeville Regional Hospital has been released and is recuperating at home, she said.

The NAJ president said that troubling developments were emerging at Cornwall Regional Hospital, with a “sizeable” portion of the nursing complement absent in suspected or confirmed cases. That has put additional pressure on the workforce at the already short-staffed facility.

Edwards-Henry disclosed that the NAJ would be conducting a survey this week to determine the number of nurses across Jamaica that have contracted COVID-19.

The nursing boss theorised that cross-contamination could be a factor in the spread of the virus among healthcare workers traversing various areas of hospitals.

“When one person goes down, you have to take persons from this area and put them in another area, so the whole movement of nurses across the different areas for coverage, that can be one of the indicative factors,” Edwards-Henry said.

- David Salmon contributed to this story.

kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com