 Welcome to NTI Nightly. I am General Norville. This edition stops stories. The Prime Minister announced a new curfew to take effect. St. Lucia records its 14th case of COVID-19 and St. Lucia releases individuals in quarantine. Hello and thank you for joining us at the Information Command Center for the national response to COVID-19 as we bring you the latest developments. Prime Minister the Honourable Alan Chastney announces a new curfew to take effect from Tuesday 7th April 2020. More in this report. Prime Minister the Honourable Alan Chastney addressed the nation following the confirmation of St. Lucia's 14th case of COVID-19. The Prime Minister speaking on the National Television Network NTN, the Information Command Center for the national response to COVID-19, indicated that the country following the culmination of the 24-hour national shutdown will go into a 10-hour shutdown from Tuesday. Prime Minister the Honourable Alan Chastney also highlighted the services to come on stream. Go back to our SI 44, so those who can find our SI and its number 44, these are the services that we're now going to basically open. So in essence what we're going to do is we're going to reduce the curfew from a 24-hour curfew to a 10-hour curfew, which will be from 7pm to 5am. So that's going to start 5am on Tuesday morning all the way through to Easter Monday. We're going to allow all services provided in SI 44. So basically we'll allow the services to operate on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. Sorry, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday, yes. We'll be able to operate from 7pm to 4pm. They will be closed on Friday, which is Good Friday, and will also be closed on Sunday, which is Easter Sunday. The Prime Minister reiterated that the national shutdown was necessary to curb the spread of the virus. He noted that some individuals have been dispatched from the quarantine centres. However, following the confirmation of local transmission and recent contact tracing, some 100 individuals were placed into quarantine. The relevant entities he noted are working assiduously to get all resources upon running. We've now been working, and I believe by Monday, we're ready to operationalise Victoria Hospital as a respiratory hospital. As you know, this weekend, the persons who were in administrative quarantine at Starfish and also at Belju have now left for the most part. I believe there's only a handful of persons that are still in quarantine in those operations. So it means that we now can convert Starfish into an isolation centre and we have Belju standing by if in fact we need more beds to be able to host and to handle people. But before even getting there, my fellow solutions, the difficulty that we had is when we reached a point where we saw in one week an increase of almost five cases. That we became a bit more concerned. And certainly one of the things that was required of the CMO and her staff was to do contact tracing. To immediately find out who those individuals were in contact with and determine whether in fact that they were exposed. That contact tracing generated 100 people that either had to go into self-quarantine or administrative quarantine. And we quickly started to realise that if we had more outbreaks, the idea of putting people into supervised quarantining, that it wouldn't work. That it wouldn't be that we didn't have enough beds. We certainly would not have enough staff to be able to do that. Chief Medical Officer in the Department of Health and Wellness, Dr. Sharon Belmark George, explained that vigorous effort was necessary to gain a firm handle on the spread of the virus. There was need for urgent and decisive action to protect the health and life of every citizen. As such, the instituting of a 24-hour national curfew was a necessary action to restrict the movement of every individual for the period April 1st to the 7th, 2020. By complying with this requirement, the expectation is that there is significantly less spread of COVID-19 virus. Though unprecedented and seemingly extreme to some, this intervention is being undertaken in the interest of health and protection of the life of our citizens. Across the region, a number of our sister islands have adopted similar measures as we as a region collectively recognise the potential threat of COVID-19 that it can pose to our people the most precious resource in our part of the world. Highlighting that the fight against COVID-19 is everybody's business, she urged members of the public to continue practising the recommendations coming out of the Department of Health and Wellness. From the Government Information Service, I am General Norvel. On Saturday, April 4, 2020, St. Lucia recorded one new confirmed case of COVID-19 out of 16 samples that were sent for testing. The individual is a 56-year-old female who is the contact of one of our previous confirmed cases. She was brought in for testing through the contact tracing team. This confirmed case brings a national total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 recorded to 14. Chief Medical Officer in the Department of Health and Wellness, Dr Sharon Belmar George, said that the individual is currently in isolation for the management of her case, and she is in good spirits. All cases currently in isolation are responding well to their treatment and continue to do well. None of the confirmed cases have complicated or required respiratory support, nor has any of the cases progressed to death. St. Lucia has zero deaths of COVID-19 to date. St. Lucia has approximately 200 persons in facility-based quarantine. A group of 85 persons in facility-based quarantine were discharged on Friday, April 3, and another group of 13 individuals have been discharged today, Saturday, April 4. All persons currently enrolled in facility-based quarantine are doing well and have not displayed signs or symptoms of COVID-19. In accordance with global standards and protocols, testing is not required for these individuals as testing is done when they develop symptoms of the virus to ensure accuracy of testing results. The Department of Health and Wellness continues the active surveillance of communities to identify potential cases of COVID-19 and to bring persons in for testing. However, while this is being undertaken, it is also important that every individual adopts behaviors which will limit the risk of new cases emerging. As such, the Department of Health continues to advise the public to focus on the maintenance of standard recommendations to prevent the spread of the COVID infection. These include regular hand washing with soap and water or the use of alcohol-based hand sanitizer. We also advise the public to work with us and stay at home. Avoid areas where there is crowds and avoid all possible contact with other persons. This will limit the spread of COVID-19 here in St. Lucia. The Department of Health and Wellness will continue providing regular updates on COVID-19. Doctors and nurses at the Owen King EU Hospital deliver a bundle of joy to a young mother and Marcy Stores and the Prime Minister's office come bearing gifts. Moindesh report from Glenn Simon. Amid the confusion, panic and fear of COVID-19 comes a glimmer of hope at the Owen King Hospital. As the first baby delivered at the hospital is showered with gifts by Marcy Stores and the office of the Prime Minister. Daria Peter was among the few other mothers primed to give birth on Friday, March 27. The patient moved day for the OKUH, but it was her son Darian Owen Peter who won the race. Nurse Katiana Lewis, one of the jubilant nurses in the maternity ward, happily made the presentation on behalf of Marcy Stores and the office of the Prime Minister. Daria Peter on behalf of OKUH Hospital and the maternity team, we would like to congratulate you on being the first mother to deliver at our brand new hospital. We would also like to present to you a lovely token on behalf of Marcy Stores to your baby boy Darian Owen Peter and we hope trust that it will go a long way in helping you as you are a new mother and we again congratulate you and all the best to you. The blushing mother Daria Peter was almost speechless as she expressed her gratitude for the care package she received. I feel great, I feel excited and I'd like to thank the maternity team and Marcy Stores for the help I got. Darian Owen Peter, his middle name chosen by his mother, symbolic of the institution where he was delivered and the great physician whose name it bears, the Owen King, EU hospital. Reporting for the Ministry of Health and Wellness, I'm Glenn Simon. This is NTI Nightly, stay with the broadcast, we'll be right back. Welcome back. Saint Lucia released its first batch of people in quarantine from the Rodney Bay Public Health Facility last week. Moindesh report from Fernelle Neptune. Chief Medical Officer Dr Sharon Belma George noted that the first batch of individuals released from quarantine entered the facility on Friday, March 20, 2020. We received care packages given that the supermarkets are closed. We were working in collaboration with Nemo so we were able to arrange and organize that they get care packages on their release to ensure that they have a supply of food available when they get home. Lady Administrator of the Rodney Bay Public Health Facility, Audrey Bess says she's very glad that individuals in quarantine get to go home and express hope that they receive support from the community. Happy for them, happy that they can go home to their families and find some kind of balance. The hope that the community that they're going into understands that quarantine does not mean that you have contracted the virus. The hope that people on the outside understand what it means when I've contracted the virus, how should I stay safe? Saint Lucia's really have to understand what the virus is and how you can protect yourself and that we need to be taking care of those of our families that are sick. Extending the love, care and appreciation to whoever is in your community that would have for whatever the reason contracted the virus and that we can help them get better. Two individuals released from quarantine shared their experience. When I first came here, I didn't really like it because I came down for funeral and they kept me here because I could not go. I wanted to go for funeral so it was me the guy who jumped the wall to go home because I didn't like it. I wanted to go for funeral and I came for that. I didn't really come here for quarantine or anything. When I came here, it was passing because it better been here or been out there because you see how they have some disease or something. So I stay in here. I don't mind staying here because they have more disease than here because we stay for inside here. Solutions, stay home, don't blame anybody and be happy because the government or the Prime Minister hasn't done anything wrong. You just have to save lives. Over the next few days, another batch of individuals in quarantine will be released and sent home. Reporting from the Communications Unit of the Ministry of Health and Wellness, I am Fennel Neptune. The management of the St. Lucia National Mental Wellness Center continues to actively monitor the developments related to COVID-19 and would like to inform the general public that the outpatient clinic will be postponed for two weeks, commencing Wednesday, April 1, 2020 to Friday, April 10, 2020. Any patient who is due for an urgent review will be contacted by the staff of the facility. Patients with valid prescriptions, which need to be refilled, can access the hospital pharmacy on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. In order to minimize the person-to-person contact and to control the potential spread of COVID-19, a limit will be placed on the number of persons who can access the pharmacy daily. For further information regarding appointments, please call the following numbers. For clinical concerns, please call 458-5952. These measures are necessary to ensure the continued safety of our employees and our patients. The management and staff of the St. Lucia National Mental Wellness Center would like to thank the general public for their understanding and cooperation as we work together to control the potential spread of COVID-19 and encourages all to continuously practice regular hand-washing and cough etiquette. St. Lucia released another batch of individuals in quarantine from the Rodney Bay and Cassie's public health facilities. Fennel Neptune has the details. A total of 139 individuals from the Rodney Bay and Cassie's public health facilities have completed the 14 days in quarantine and were sent home on Sunday, April 5, 2020. The individuals showed no signs and symptoms of COVID-19 and were provided with certificates of health upon the departure. Chief Medical Officer Dr. Sharon Belma George also highlighted the importance of having these individuals in quarantine. Because there are many countries at a high risk based on the number of positive cases for COVID-19, it's important that we keep persons who come back, travelers, in quarantine where we monitor them, their temperature, we do their vital signs and we monitor them for respiratory signs and symptoms that is fever, cough, sneezing, runny nose, sore throat or just feeling unwell. So we monitor them and for anyone who develops respiratory signs and symptoms, we ensure that they get tested for COVID-19. This is to protect and to prevent and to reduce the possible transmission of COVID-19 from persons coming into the island. Three individuals released from quarantine shared their experience. My experience at quarantine has been, for me it's been unique. It's been a learning experience. I mean in the beginning it was a little difficult until we settled in. After we settled in it was really comfortable. The nurses, everybody made it really comfortable for us and we understood what it meant to be quarantined because as a seafarer we were on a cruise ship most of us and we got here. We already did a little quarantine on board but here we did another 14 which was really a good experience before letting out in society. So I'm glad it was done. I had a good experience in quarantine but thanks to the Ministry of Health, the Prime Minister, the officers, the nurses which made it a tremendous experience. So I want to give them a thumbs up and to tell them keep what they're doing because they're working extra-extra hard to make sure they control the spread of the coronavirus. My experience here has been pretty positive I'd like to say. I was able to get all of my schoolwork done. We did have a bit of hiccups with the Wi-Fi over the first few days however Wi-Fi was always maintained in the front building so if you did need Wi-Fi you were able to get it. The food every day we got three meals a day which was quite nice. I like the rigorous checks that they did for our temperature every single morning and every night. So overall I think it was a very useful experience. The individuals in quarantine were provided with care packages from NEMO and transportation to go home. Reporting from the Communications Unit of the Ministry of Health and Wellness, I am Fennel Neptune. That brings us to the end of NTNightly. Join us next time at 7pm with a repeat at 7am. You can also catch up with us anytime on the St. Lucia Government Facebook page or YouTube channel. I am Genel Novel.