St. George: August 5, 2021: Grenada on Thursday recorded two more COVID-19 cases, bringing the country’s total to 172 since the start of the pandemic in March last year.

One of the new cases is a 30-year old unvaccinated female, travelling alone, who arrived on July 30, aboard the Inter Caribbean flight and whose travel history included Jamaica and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. 

The other newly identified case is a family member of case #170, the visiting female who tested positive as she was undergoing routine testing to leave the country after a week-long visit.

The Ministry of Health is currently involved in contact tracing efforts, following the detection of case #170, who because of her negative status and test result on arrival, was released from quarantine and who visited ten different places within the past week.

As a result, the Ministry has so far identified 53 potential contacts who have all been tested thus far. Two have returned negative results, while the remaining 51 results are pending. 

While the number of locations visited presents some cause for concern, health officials are optimistic that based on the limited interactions between cases #170 and #171 and their service providers at the various locations identified, the potential spread of the virus will be limited.

Nonetheless, the Ministry of Health is in direct contact with the establishments and is continuing the process of contact tracing. The Ministry encourages residents to continue to follow all the COVID-19 protocols to help safeguard themselves.

Relatedly, the Ministry of Health is still awaiting test results from samples sent to the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) for testing to determine whether or not other variants have been detected in Grenada. The test results are expected soon and additional samples are likely to be sent in the coming days. To date, the only variant identified in Grenada is Alpha.