 The chief medical officer speaking at Wednesday's press briefing disclosed that data from the wave and contact tracing process guides the measures, protocols, and recommendations emanating from the Ministry of Health, Wellness, and Elderly Affairs. This Dr. Sean Belmar George explained is done with the view of keeping the population safe and curbing the spread of the virus. She added that due to the nature of the pandemic, it is difficult to forecast the long-term. Consequently, once a risk has been identified, changes often occur with short notice as quick and decisive action is necessary to mitigate that risk. If we note a new risk from the cases we are getting, we will not wait for the three weeks to pass to make a new recommendation. As much as possible, we try to mitigate those risks and it does lead to a level of inconvenience to the public which we recognize. So we use the data from the contact tracing to see where the cases are coming from, to identify the risk, and we target our interventions guided by this data. Dr. Belmar George added that based on data stemming from St. Lucia's fourth wave, recommendations made during the first and second waves may not be applicable to this wave. Providing an example, the chief medical officer explained why at this stage in St. Lucia's management of COVID-19, recommendations may not include the closure of the borders. From our data coming in, we monitor the number of positive cases that are coming from the hotel. We also do contact tracing. We have on testing staff members at the hotels from positive guests. We have not been able to show that there are cases coming in from guests and spread to the staff when we test them. We do not have any information showing that. When we test the staff that were in contact with the guests, we are not getting spread from the hotels. Another factor that we have to look at. We have been monitoring the immunization rates of visitors coming in. In the month of June, 63% of the visitors were fully vaccinated. In July, it was 71%. In August, 74% of visitors coming in are fully vaccinated. We also look at the vaccinated rates at the hotels. The hotels have been the services that have the highest rates of vaccination of staff members. A lot of the hotels up to 75% to 85% of the officers there, the workers, are fully vaccinated. So there's an extra protective level coming in. The chief medical officer highlighted measures that would aid in curbing the spread of COVID-19 in country. In trying to facilitate a level of balance, we use the data to guide, to mitigate the risks. The point where we are now and what we know works are the adherence to the public health measures that we see and we note can and does keep us safe when it is implemented in a proper way. The other measure is the adequate vaccine coverage in country that we are working on on various levels to see how we can increase that level so that we can get a reduction of persons coming in to our health care system and also see a reduction in the number of deaths as well. Chief medical officer Dr. Sharon Belmar George.