 On Friday, October 16, 2020, the Ministry of Health received a confirmation of one new case of COVID-19. The individual is a 14-year-old male, the son of a recently diagnosed cases 30 and 31 from castries. The individual was swabbed following the diagnosis of his parents and placed in quarantine, given his high risk of exposure to the virus. At that time, he had no respiratory signs and symptoms. Upon receiving his results, he was transferred to the respiratory hospital for care. This case will continue the current efforts of the Ministry's contact tracing team, which had commenced with the diagnosis of cases, his parents, COVID-19 cases 30 and 31. Given this new case is a secondary school student, Chief Medical Officer Dr Sharon Belmont-George says the necessary discussions are underway with the Ministry of Education and the management of the school. The Cabinet of Ministers met in emergency session on Friday morning to discuss the unfolding developments. Prime Minister Hon. Alan Chastney has activated the National Emergency Management Advisory Committee, NEMAC. A special meeting was held Friday afternoon. Lisa Choseff reports. Prime Minister Hon. Alan Chastney told the NEMAC meeting that at this time the country will not be shut down nor will curfew be imposed. Rather, strict enforcement of established protocols by the Royce and Usher Police Force will be in effect, as the Ministry of Health manages what is now community spread of COVID-19. Chief Medical Officer Dr Sharon Belmont-George says a contact tracing app will be introduced to aid in the fight. All schools island-wide will remain closed for one week, and the Castries Comprehensive Secondary School closed for two weeks. During this period, the Ministry of Health and Wellness will continue to conduct its necessary screenings, the results of which will help determine the way forward. The Ministry says instruction will revert to the multifaceted approach of online learning and safe distribution of instructional packages from teachers during the period students are at home. We are presently at 500% decision to reduce mass crowd activities to limit it to 100 as we monitor and manage the situation on the ground. All sectors with the reopening, the phase reopening of the economy presented plans COVID-19 safety plans to allow the safe reopening of the organizations. We noted over the last few weeks a level of complacency and non-adherence to those. There will be strict enforcement of protocols from community markets to nightclubs to dances to beach parties to weddings, funerals, church activities, and boat rides will be limited to family excursions only taking out the public boat rides, which pose a risk to us. So all of those activities will be strictly enforced for protocols or run the risk of losing their licensing or being closed within very short measures. Also, we're coming close to the juniperial activities. Those will be limited to family home activities and the community activities will not be allowed. Health Minister Senator Mary Isak called on everyone to play their part in keeping the country safe. When you're in a community and you see a person who's supposed to be in Martinique or supposed to be somewhere else and the person just show up, you need to be able to report that to the authorities. You have to, we all have to do what is necessary for us to contain this virus. It may well be our own lives that we are saving. Prime Minister Allen Chastney stressed that this is not the time for panic but collective action. The only way we can protect ourselves is by being each other's brother's keeper. It's the only way and we have to have zero tolerance. We were getting away with it because for the most part we didn't have it in our communities. We now know we have it in our communities and that's what I'm saying to you. We don't need to wait until tomorrow or next week to find out what the numbers are. The remedy is the same. Persons who are currently infected can't change that. We need to try to help them find out that they are infected, get them to quarantine as quickly as possible but the rest of us need to be safe practices and I assure you there's a study that came out today that said if you're in a plane and everybody's wearing their face mask even if they are individuals who have COVID on that plane you minimize the likelihood of you becoming affected by wearing your mask. The chief medical officer says it is anticipated and expected that St. Usher would have to manage small waves of COVID-19 without going through extreme measures. From the Government Information Service, Lisa Joseph reports in.