Barbados Diplomat Tests Positive For COVID-19

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, May 22, 2020 (CMC) – The Barbados Ambassador to the United Nations, Liz Thompson, has tested positive for the coronavirus (COVID-19), according to an official statement, issued Tuesday, by the Ministry of Health and Wellness.

The statement stated that the diplomat, who had returned to the island, on Monday, from New York — the epicenter of the COVID outbreak in the United States — has no symptoms of the disease and is feeling “perfectly well”.

“Ms Thompson arrived on a private jet, and was tested at Paragon, immediately after her arrival. This morning, we received information that her test was positive. There was one other passenger on the plane, on which the Ambassador travelled. That passenger was also tested; that test is negative,” the statement reported.

It said that Thompson had come to Barbados to be at the bedside of her 95-year-old mother, who became gravely ill with a heart condition, a “non-COVID-related condition”, on the weekend.

“Given the gravity of her mother’s condition, she was allowed to go to her mother’s bedside. The senior Mrs Thompson is being kept comfortable at her home,” the statement said, adding that the diplomat “has had no contact with the members of that household, other than her mother”, and will, from Tuesday, go into isolation.

“Despite not having contact with members of the household, the Ministry of Health is taking the usual precaution of testing family members. All precautionary measures and protocols are being observed.

“The Ministry of Health will continue to deal with this situation as it has all other cases in Barbados.”

Ambassador Thompson and her family are cooperating, fully, with the Ministry, but she is appealing to the public, not to contact the family, given her mother’s very grave and deteriorating condition,” the statement added.

Barbados has recorded 88 cases of the coronavirus, resulting in seven deaths.