 Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health and Wellness on Sunday, January 24, 2021 received confirmation from the Caribbean Public Health Agency, CAFRA, of five cases of the SARS-CoV-2 British variant diagnosed in country. Two of the cases are British nationals who were diagnosed on December 17 and December 23, 2020, while the other three cases are St. Lucia Nationals from the Denry, Miku and Barbano districts who were all diagnosed in December 2020. All five cases have made a full recovery from the COVID-19 virus. Chief Medical Officer Dr. Sharon Melmar George. The identified strain had been in circulation from September 20, 2020, within the United Kingdom. The virus has since been detected in Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium and Australia, but the risk of importation into the Caribbean and the rest of the world was rated as high due to incoming travel from the United Kingdom and Europe. Cases of this new strain have since been confirmed in several Caribbean islands, including Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica. It is known and expected that all viruses constantly change over time. As such, it had been anticipated that this would also obtain if the COVID-19 virus. Studies conducted in the United Kingdom on this new variant of the virus suggest that it increases the rate of which the virus spread. This is estimated as increasing as much as up to 70%. The United Kingdom has noted increased levels of transmission and spread in the areas where the variant SARS-CoV-2 strain has been found. However, there is no evidence at this point of more severe cases associated with the new variant or reducing the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine. This new situation, according to the Chief Medical Officer, further emphasises the need for strict adherence to all protocols recommended thus far and to ensure increased vigilance at all levels where risk has been identified. CARFA is the regional reference lab with the capacity to perform gene sequencing for the region and does gene sequencing for the variant for all its member states. At the recently convened meeting, the organisation urged member states to ensure strict adherence to the current regional and national guidelines on COVID-19 prevention and control. The European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed the following. There are no reports of worse clinical outcomes. The level of mortality remains the same. The effect on the population groups affected remains the same. On Monday, December 21, 2020, the Caribbean Public Health Agency hosted an emergency meeting with PAHO, WHO, OECS, and the Chief Medical Officers of the region to discuss the new risk by this new variant. It was further confirmed that the COVID-19 PCR testing being done in countries remains the gold standard to ensure accurate diagnosis within the mutations and the vaccine approved by the Food and Drug Administration remains as relevant. The recommendations made are in relation to the strict adherence to the current regional and national guidelines on COVID-19 prevention and control. CARFA allows countries to send an allocation of 10 samples per week, which meets the requirements for gene sequencing for testing. The process of gene sequencing has a turnaround time of 3 to 4 weeks.