 As of March 27, 2020, the World Health Organization reported a total of 509,164 confirmed cases of COVID-19 globally with 23,335 deaths. There are now 81,137 confirmed cases in the region of the Americas. As of this week, Senusha commenced testing for COVID-19 in country and the first batch of tests were conducted on Friday, March 27, 2020. 29 tests were done with 28 on negative. On Saturday, March 28, the laboratory director at the Ezra Long Laboratory at the OKEU Hospital reported one positive case, which brings our national total of confirmed COVID-19 cases to four. This is the first positive case from local testing. The individual is a 49-year-old female national, nurse by profession, with a troubled history to the United Kingdom. She returned to St. Lucia on Saturday, March 21 and was placed in quarantine, during which time she developed a cough and samples were taken for testing. Her results have confirmed that she is positive for COVID-19. She has since been transferred into isolation. The individual is doing well and she is in good spirits. The Department of Health is currently undertaking routine contact tracing as required by our protocol. As indicated in a press update earlier this week, the first two confirmed cases of COVID-19 were repatriated to the United Kingdom. The third case has recovered but has been kept in isolation as a precautionary measure to minimize any possible risk of transmission. To date, St. Lucia has over 300 persons still in quarantine. This quarantine is a combination of home-based and facility-based quarantine. Approximately 260 persons are in quarantine and about 50 in home quarantine. Facility quarantine commenced on Friday, March 20 and three facilities have been established for this purpose. Persons managed at the facility-based quarantine sites are managed at the expense of the state and this includes the provision of their boarding, meals as well as their medical assessments and monitoring. All persons in facility-based quarantine are doing well. As such, there is no need for testing of those individuals. In keeping with global standards and protocols, testing is done when persons develop symptoms of the virus to ensure accuracy of testing results. That is, when we have persons in quarantine, if they do not develop signs and symptoms of COVID-19, we would not test them. We only test the persons who develop respiratory signs and symptoms in quarantine. Effective Monday, March 23, 2020, the government of St. Lucia instituted a national country scale down for services for a period of two weeks. The public has been guided that this measure is put in place to reduce direct person-to-person contact and as such, reduce the potential risk of transmission of COVID-19. This measure requires the support and compliance of all to adopt an unusual physical distance from other persons or objects in public places. Though this may seem difficult, the measure is one of the most effective and means of preventing local transmission and requires the input of every single individual in making our national response to COVID-19 effective. By each and every one playing their part during this scale down by remaining at home, avoiding social activities and public places, together we will be better placed to prevent the spread of the virus. We continue to advise the public to focus on the maintenance of standard recommendations to prevent the spread of infection. Some of these include regular hand washing, use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers, covering your mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing, avoid close contact with anyone showing symptoms of respiratory illness and to seek medical attention and share your travel history with your healthcare provider if you have symptoms suggestive of respiratory illness either during or after travel. The Department of Health and Wellness will continue providing regular updates on COVID-19.