by Linda Straker
- Logbooks allow contact tracers to privately contact people potentially exposed to Covid-19
- False information may mean an infected person would not be contacted by Ministry of Health
- Grenada’s latest cases, breached quarantine regulations and visited 4 restaurants
- One restaurant did not have record-keeping information
Dr Shawn Charles, Acting Chief Medical Officer, has warned individuals about the dangers of providing incorrect information in record-keeping logs at restaurants and other businesses, when the intention of this initiative is to provide contact tracers with an avenue to privately contact people potentially exposed to Covid-19.
“If individuals were to put a false name or fake name on a log and a number at which they cannot be reached, in the event something like this occurred and that person was exposed, that person might be infected and they would not have been contacted by the Ministry of Health. They will go on to infect their co-workers and their family and someone may die,” Charles said in the weekly post-cabinet briefing.
Last weekend the Ministry of Health announced that 2 people who arrived from the USA were tested positive for the contagion. The 2, who are Grenada’s latest cases, breached quarantine regulations by leaving their home before receiving clearance from the Ministry of Health. By the time they were contacted, they had visited 4 restaurants and one of the restaurants did not have record-keeping information.
Health Minister Nickolas Steele used the post briefing as an opportunity to highlight the risk of providing fake information to businesses that are keeping logbooks. “That information is confidential and will only be used by the Ministry of Health for contact tracing purposes,” Steele said.
As of resuming normality since the country went into lockdown as a means of containing and controlling the spread of Covid-19, Grenada adopted a number of new protocols for business. All businesses must keep a visitor or user logbook. There are minor instances of people providing fake contact information.
“We must all be responsible in every aspect if someone enters a fake name or a false name on a log what are they escaping from? They are just endangering themselves and everyone around them,” Charles said, urging all citizens to work along with the Ministry of Health by following the protocols of sanitising and maintaining physical distancing. “Businesses you are given some protocols or some rules that you need to follow. These were put in to facilitate a safe or a safer Grenada. Just work along with us and assist us all in protecting our own selves, protecting our country, protecting our health and protecting our economy.”