 The Ministry of Health and Wellness has issued a bleak warning to St. Lucian's. Observe all control and prevention protocols for COVID-19, or St. Lucia may be set for a fourth wave of infection. The warning came as officials updated the nation via the Information Command Centre on NTN on the status of the in-country infection, transmission and recovery from the coronavirus. Chief Medical Officer Dr Sharon Belmar George explained that the risks for community spread include non-adherence of visitors to hotel protocols, reduced use and poor use of face masks in public places, increased mass crowd events across the island, non-adherence to establish protocols at business places, and the crowding of public buses without the use of face masks. The Chief Medical Officer noted that due to the non-compliance to protocols, the country may be heading towards another COVID-19 outbreak. Previously, we were managing with a rate of transmission of 1.1. We have gone up to 1.54 and we see the upward trend towards a fourth wave in country. We are at a very critical point and we want to ensure that everyone is aware of where we are and our actions at this point is really going to determine how we continue to manage. We can end up getting to a major outbreak as we are seeing happening in the rest of the world. The CMO further explained that the very communities in which majority of the protocols are being breached are the ones recording increased COVID-19 cases. Everyone must take personal responsibility and adhere to all COVID-19 protocols for the safety of the citizenry. There's been a general relaxation of the measures during the month of May. I think if we all take an honest look around what's happening on the ground within the communities, the social activities and there are specific areas which we have flagged and picked up the outbreak of our cases. There are certain services that are higher risk where we get more cases when there is one detected. So it is really important that we as a country do what is necessary. We take personal responsibility to ensure that we protect ourselves and our family. The Ministry of Health and Wellness noted that while a general decrease in COVID-19 cases has been observed over time, the possibility of an outbreak looks as members of the public continue to disregard the protocols.