 The Ministry of Health and Wellness received confirmation of 16 new cases of COVID-19 from the Israel Long Laboratory on Wednesday, January 27, 2021. This is from a batch of 258 samples which were tested. This brings the total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 diagnosed in country to date to 1029. All 60 cases are St. Lucia Nationals who range in age from 4 to 76 years. They are from the castries Souffre, Ansleray, Viewfort, Grosile, Denry, Barbono, Niko and Schroesel districts. All of these individuals were seen at community-based respiratory clinics where they were assessed and tested for COVID-19. As per protocol, they were placed in quarantine by healthcare practitioners while awaiting their COVID-19 test results. Cases have since been made to move these individuals into isolation. The contact tracing team is undertaking investigations to identify the contacts of these confirmed cases. Chief Medical Officer in the Ministry of Health and Wellness, Dr Sharon Belmar George, during a press conference explained that part of the ministry's response to the increase in cases of COVID-19 is the commissioning of two new facilities. We are noting the increases in cases and we are adjusting the system to manage the patients in a safe way and to continue in terms of the surveillance within the communities and also to contain. One of the things I forgot to indicate that later this week we'll also be including two other hotels as isolation and also as quarantine units to assist us in containment and isolation of persons. Once this starts we'll provide you with that information but we are already preparing to start off with two new facilities to assist us to manage the increases. The Ministry of Health and Wellness on Wednesday also received confirmation of the recovery of 30 individuals diagnosed with COVID-19, bringing the total number of active cases in country to date to 491. As at news time one of the active cases is in critical care at the respiratory hospital and all of the others are stable.