 Hello, and welcome to another COVID Facts in 5. Your comprehensive look at St. Lucia's management and mitigation of the novel coronavirus. I'm Hermadi Mark. The Ministry of Health and Wellness in the past year has been using isolation and quarantine methods to prevent the spread of COVID-19. State quarantine is used for anyone who is a contact of someone infected with COVID-19. isolation is used for someone with COVID-19 symptoms or who have tested positive for the virus, ideally in a medical facility. A number of such facilities are being provided by government. Heresnes Alma-Dollaw with details on the benefits of centralized care and services offered at the facilities. We keep persons who are positive and have mild signs and symptoms, they do not need to be in hospital. So we keep them in our isolation facilities to be monitored daily to ensure that they do not get more serious complications or they are not allowed to be in the public where they can expose themselves to other persons who can get infected. In addition, we also keep those who do not have adequate stay at home. They may be positive mild but they do not have adequate space where they're supposed to have a separate room and bathroom or separate apartment where they could live. So those persons are kept in isolation to avoid the exposure to other persons so that they could spread the virus. At the isolation facilities, the patients are monitored daily. Their temperature and other vitals are taken according to their needs because some of the persons have underlying medical conditions and they need other vital signs taken like the blood sugar, the blood pressure and so on. So these persons are also seen by a doctor according to their needs because as I said earlier, some persons have other medical conditions, they may be mild for the COVID, however they have other medical conditions and if the need arises, they are seen by a doctor on a daily basis. In addition, they get their meals, free meals a day, breakfast, lunch and dinner and also we try to meet their needs as much as possible. Some can't quarantine at home because they may not have the appropriate accommodation. Someone who is being monitored for the possibility of being infected by the COVID-19 virus has to be in a separate room with a separate bathroom or in a separate apartment. Some persons do not have this accommodation so it is safer to keep those persons at the facility in the event that the person really is positive. We protect them from the other members of the family but from becoming positive. In addition, we have some persons who just find it difficult to remain home and may want to go out. So we are trying to really encourage those persons to remain in the facility to protect the rest of the population as much as possible. The coronavirus is a new event and sometimes a person may look mild at this minute and another minute they may become worse. So it is safer to keep some persons in a facility where you have the medical conditions available. You have nurses, you have doctors and you have medications on standby, emergency medications. So in the event that something happens, at that time the person can get the appropriate treatment and also if they need to be transferred to the hospital this could be done in a reasonable time. So we would have preferred that persons who are mild be in quarantine or isolation so that they could be monitored adequately. And effective February 11th, 2021, the government began absorbing a greater part of the cost of state quarantine for returning nationals. The daily fees cover the cost of a bed and a bathroom, air conditioning, wi-fi, three meals per day, toiletries and bottled water. Single occupancy which was US $95 is now reduced to US $25. Double occupancy was US $160 and is now US $45. And triple occupancy was US $240 and is now US $65. Double and triple occupancy applies to families within the same unit. Government continues to cover the cost of locals and residents on island who are pleased in state quarantine and isolation. Join us next time for another COVID Facts in 5, I'm Hermione Ma.